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SELECTIONS 

FROM 

THE SKETCH-BOOK 



BY 

WASHINGTON IRVING 



WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, EXPLANATORY NOTES, 
CRITICAL OPINIONS AND DIRECTIONS TO TEACHERS 



BY 

A. J. DEMAREST, A. M. 

Superintendent of Schools, Hoboken, N. J 



PHILADELPHIA: 

CHRISTOPHER SOWER COMPANY 

124 N. Eighteenth Street 



0^^ 



Copyright, 1912, by 
Christopher Sower Company 



€CU312817 



This volume carries with it the 

grateful acknowledgment of 

the Editor 

to 

GROVER E. ASMUS 

for the original photographs which 

add to the material interest 

of the text. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Prefatory Note to the Teacher 7 

The Sketch-Book 11 

The Author's Account of Himself 11 

The Voyage 16 

Rip Van Winkle 28 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 61 

Christmas Eve 123 

Biographical Sketch of Irving 143 

His Parentage and Birth 143 

His Boyhood and Education 144 

First Visit to Europe 145 

Admission to the Bar 146 

Salmagundi 146 

Irving Literary Career 146 

Period of Sketches 146 

The Sketch-Book 147 

Bracebridge Hall 148 

6 



6 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Period of Spanish Subjects 149 

Period of American Subjects 149 

Period of Biographical Subjects 150 

His Death 150 

Chronology of Irving's Works 150 

Critical Estimates 152 

Bibliography 153 



PREFATORY NOTE TO THE TEACHER 



Before the reading of The Sketch-Book is taken up for class 
work the teacher should make a careful study of the history 
of the composition of each sketch, its relation to the life of the 
author, and its relations to other works by the same author. 
While The Sketch-Book will appeal to the ordinary reader, yet 
some preparation on the part of the teacher is essential for 
class-room work. This critical study should be of a twofold 
character: First, the foundations upon which the author built 
his sketches; and second, references to stories or essays of other 
authors with which the sketches of Irving may be compared or 
contrasted. In teaching any classic it should be the aim of the 
teacher to implant in the minds of the pupils a strong desire to 
read that particular sketch. 

Outline for Class Reading 

A classic improves with each reading, and each sketch in this 
collection should be read at least three times. "The Legend of 
Sleepy Hollow" has been selected by the editor for the purpose 
of illustrating a method of presentation. The other narratives 
may be presented in a similar manner with slight modifications. 

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 

First Reading 

The first step in the reading of any classic is to read it as a 
whole for the purpose of permitting the pupils to get the thread 

7 



8 PREFATORY NOTE TO THE TEACHER 

of the story. In no sense should this reading be used as a formal 
reading lesson. We shall make an inevitable failure if we attempt 
to teach reading in connection with literary appreciation of a 
classic. The first lessons, then, should require merely an intel- 
ligent reading of the sketch. Each day's, lesson should be so 
planned that it will stop at some interesting place in order to 
keep up a sustained interest on the part of the class. When we 
have read and have grasped the story as a whole, we are ready 
for the second reading. 

Second Reading 

In reading the story a second time we should aim to study the 
mechanical means by which the author secured his effects. In 
this detailed study the teacher should do all the reading, plan- 
ning each day's lesson so that it will stop at some logical place 
in the story. During the second reading the student should form 
clear conceptions of — 

(a) The Characters. — Are the people in the story life-like? 
Are they real? Can you see them? What are the prominent 
traits of each character? Has the story a hero? a heroine? 
Gather together all that the author says of the principal charac- 
ters. Which is your favorite character? Why? Emphasize 
the fact that ghost stories were fashionable in Irving's day. 
Show that while Irving frequently employed a supernatural 
incident or a ghost story, he did not at any time aim to secure 
the effect of terror. He plays with the ghosts, but only to produce 
a smile on the part of his readers. The Headless Horseman is 
only a prelude to the shattered pumpkin. Compare and con- 
trast Ichabod Crane with other schoolmasters in literature. 

(b) The Setting. — Where is the scene of the story laid? At 
what time of the year? Does the author mention any "local 
color," that is, objects, customs, and costumes peculiar to the time 
and place? Can you call up a mental picture of the old Sleepy 
Hollow schoolhouse? Is the home of the Van Tassell family 
vividly portrayed? Be sure to get a good, vivid picture of the 



PREFATORY NOTE TO THE TEACHER 9 

interior and exterior of the old farmhouse. Dwell upon the 
"quilting bee," and show how it played a part in the develop- 
ment of the story. Select the best descriptions of nature. Do 
the descriptions of nature surpass the delineations of personal 
portraits? Justify the statement of Irving that "the story is a 
mere whimsical band to connect the description of scenery, 
customs, manners, etc." 

(c) The Plot. — Is the story interesting? Does it hold your in- 
terest? Are there any parts where the interest lags? Do the 
facts follow each other in the sequence of time? Does the story 
lack unity? At what point in the story is the interest (climax) at 
the highest pitch? 

(d) The Style. — Name the colloquial and idiomatic expressions. 
Select words that are strong and terse; those that are highly 
polished or ornamental. Show how the author uses drollery, 
grace, pathos, and grandeur in turn to touch the heart and move 
the fancy. Dwell upon the fact that his English is pure and ele- 
gant; his sentences are clear and sparkling. Of the three quali- 
ties of style, clearness, force, and beauty, which is most marked 
here? Are the sentences short, long, or of average length? 
Are the paragraphs short, medium, or long? Does he use words 
precisely? Which of the following words best describe his 
diction: clear, simple, polished, ornate, terse, idiomatic, colloquial, 
verbose? Irving was pre-eminently a story-teller; does this 
sketch justify that statement? To what extent does he use 
figurative language? Where do his figures come from or what 
is the source of his comparison? 

(e) Memory Gems. — The pupils should be encouraged to select 
choice passages for memorization and to give reasons for their 
selection. 

(f) Collateral Reading. — The study of this story should be pre- 
sented in such an interesting manner as to give the pupils a desire 
to read other stories. 

(g) Composition and Outline Work. — Brief compositions may be 
written upon selected topics or in reproducing parts of the story. 
The following list of composition subjects from "The Legend of 



10 PREFATORY NOTE TO THE TEACHER 

Sleepy Hollow" may be profitably used in connection with the 
study of the story: 

(a) The Schoolmaster of the Early Days. 

(6) The Schoolhouse of the Early Days vs. the Modern School- 
house. 

(c) Early Education vs. Modern Education. 

{d) An Old Dutch Farmhouse. 

(e) Ichabod Crane, the Type of the Yankee Schoolmaster. 

(/) An Old Time Dutch Supper. 

(g) The Quilting Bee. 

{h) Baltus Van Tassell, the Dutch Farmer. 

Third Reading 

This reading should be free from all criticism, and should be 
given for the purpose of permitting the student to enjoy the 
revealed beauty of the story. 



THE SKETCH-BOOK 



THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF 



** I am of this mind with Homer, that as the snaile that crept 
out of her shel was turned eftsoons into a toad, and thereby was 
forced to make a stoole to sit on; so the traveller that stragleth 
from his owne country is in a short time transformed into so 
monstrous a shape, that he is faine to alter his mansion with 
his manners, and to live where he can, not where he would." 

Lyly's Euphues. 

I WAS always fond of visiting new scenes, and ob- 
serving strange characters and manners. Even when 
a mere child I began my travels, and made many tours 
of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of 
my native city, to the frequent alarm of my parents, 
and the emolument of the town-crier. As I grew into 
boyhood, I extended the range of my observations. 

Homer: Noted epic poet of Greece; author of the Iliad and 
the Odyssey. 

John Lyly (1554-1605) : An English dramatist and wit, who is 
best known from his novel Euphues. 

Emolument: Profit arising from office. 
11 



12 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

My holiday afternoons were spent in rambles about 
the surrounding country. I made myself familiar 
with all its places famous in history or fable. I knew 
every spot where a murder or robbery had been com- 
mitted, or a ghost seen. I visited the neighboring 
villages, and added greatly to my stock of knowledge 
by noting their habits and customs, and conversing 
with their sages and great men. I even journeyed 
one long summer's day to the summit of the most 
distant hill, whence I stretched my eye over many a 
mile of terra incognita, and was astonished to find how 
vast a globe I inhabited. 

This rambling propensity strengthened with my 
years. Books of voyages and travels became my pas- 
sion, and in devouring their contents I neglected the 
regular exercises of the school. How wistfully would 
I wander about the pier-heads in fine weather, and 
watch the parting ships, bound to distant climes — 
with what longing eyes would I gaze after their lessen- 
ing sails, and waft myself in imagination to the ends of 
the earth! 

Further reading and thinking, though they brought 
this vague inclination into more reasonable bounds, 
only served to make it more decided. I visited various 
parts of my own country ; -and had I been merely a lover 
of fine scenery, I should have felt little desire to seek 
elsewhere its gratification, for on no country have the 
charms of nature been more prodigally lavished. Her 

Terra incognita: Latin for "unknown country." 



THE AUTHORS ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF 13 

mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her moun- 
tains, with their bright aerial tints; her valleys, teeming 
with wild fertility; her tremendous cataracts, thunder- 
ing in their solitudes; her boundless plains, waving with 
spontaneous verdure; her broad, deep rivers, rolling in 
solemn silence to the ocean; her trackless forests, where 
vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; her skies, 
kindling with the magic of summer clouds and glorious 
sunshine; — no, never need an American look beyond 
his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natu- 
ral scenery. 

But Europe held forth the charms of storied and 
poetical association. There were to be seen the master- 
pieces of art, the refinements of highly cultivated 
society, the quaint peculiarities of ancient and local 
custom. My native country was full of youthful 
promise: Europe was rich in the accumulated treasures 
of age. Her very ruins told the history of times gone 
by, and every mouldering stone was a chronicle. I 
longed to wander over the scenes of renowned achieve- 
ment — to tread, as it were, in the footsteps of antiquity 
— to loiter about the ruined castle— to meditate on the 
falling tower — to escape, in short, from the common- 
place realities of the present, and lose myself among the 
shadowy grandeurs of the past. 

I had, beside all this, an earnest desire to see the 
great men of the earth. We have, it is true, our great 



Chronicle: A narrative of events disposed in the order of 
time. 



14 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

men in America: not a city but has an ample share of 
them. I have mingled among them in my time, and 
been almost withered by the shade into which they 
cast me; for there is nothing so baleful to a small man 
as the shade of a great one, particularly the great 
man of a city. But I was anxious to see the great 
men of Europe; for I had read in the works of various 
philosophers that all animals degenerated in America, 
and man among the number. A great man of Europe, 
thought I, must therefore be as superior to a great man 
of America, as a peak of the Alps to a highland of the 
Hudson; and in this idea I was confirmed by observing 
the comparative importance and swelling magnitude of 
many English travellers among us, wdio, I was assured, 
were very little people in their own country. I will 
visit this land of wonders, thought I, and see the 
gigantic race from which I am degenerated. 

It has been either my good or evil lot to have my 
roving passion gratified. I have wandered through 
different countries, and witnessed many of the shifting 
scenes of life. I cannot say that I have studied them 
with the eye of a philosopher; but rather with the 
sauntering gaze with which humble lovers of the 
picturesque stroll from the window of one print-shop 
to another, caught sometimes by the delineations of 
beauty, sometimes by the distortions of caricature, and 

Baleful: An obsolete word, "evil." 

Picturesque: Picture-like, possessing qualities that would 
be effective in a picture. 



THE AUTHORS ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF 15 

sometimes by the loveliness of landscape. As it is the 
fashion for modern tourists to travel pencil in hand, and 
bring home their portfolios filled with sketches, I am 
disposed to get up a few for the entertainment of my 
friends. When, however, I look over the hints and 
memorandums I have taken down for the purpose, my 
heart almost fails me at finding how my idle humor has 
led me aside from the great objects studied by every 
regular traveller who would make a book. I fear I 
shall give equal disappointment with an unlucky land- 
scape painter who had travelled on the Continent, but, 
following the bent of his vagrant inclination, had 
sketched in nooks, and corners, and by-places. His 
sketch-book was accordingly crowded with cottages, 
and landscapes, and obscure ruins; but he had neglected 
to paint St. Peter's, or the Coliseum; the cascade of 
Terni, or the Bay of Naples; and had not a single 
glacier or volcano in his whole collection. 



St. Peter's: The metropolitan church of the Roman See. 
It is built upon the site of the religious edifice erected in the time 
of Constantine, 306. 

Coliseum: The amphitheatre of the Emperor Vespasian at 
Rome. 

Terni : Town of Italy, noted for the Falls of Velino. 

Bay of Naples: A bay on the southwest coast of Italy, re- 
garded as one of the most beautiful harbors of the world. 



THE VOYAGE 



Ships, ships, I will descrie you 

Amidst the main, 
I will come and try you, 
What you are protecting, 
And projecting, 

What's your end and aim. 
One goes abroad for merchandise and trading, 
Another stays to keep his country from invading, 
A third is coming home with rich and wealthy lading. 
Halloo! my fancie, whither wilt thou go? 

Old Poem. 

To an American visiting Europe, the long voyage he 
has to make is an excellent preparative. The tempo- 
rary absence of worldly scenes and employments pro- 
duces a state of mind peculiarly fitted to receive new 
and vivid impressions. The vast space of waters that 
separates the hemispheres is like a blank page in ex- 
istence. There is no gradual transition, by which, as 
in Europe, the features and population of one country 
blend almost imperceptibly with those of another. 

Irving made his first voyage to Europe in a sailing vessel in 
1804. 
Preparative: That which prepares, preparation. 
16 



THE VOYAGE 17 

From the moment you lose sight of the land you have 
left, all is vacancy until you step on the opposite shore, 
and are launched at once into the bustle and novelties 
of another world. 

In traveling by land there is a continuity of scene and 
a connected succession of persons and incidents, that 
carry on the story of life, and lessen the effect of ab- 
sence and separation. We drag, it is true, '' a length- 
ening chain," at each remove of our pilgrimage; but 
the chain is unbroken : we can trace it back link by link ; 
and we feel that the last still grapples us to home. But 
a wide sea voyage severs us at once. It makes us 
conscious of being cast loose from the secure anchorage 
of settled life, and sent adrift upon a doubtful world. 
It interposes a gulf, not merely imaginary, but real, 
between us and our homes — a gulf subject to tempest 
and fear and uncertainty, rendering distance palpable, 
and return precarious. 

Such, at least, was the case with myself. As I saw 
the last blue Hne of my native land fade away like a 
cloud in the horizon, it seemed as if I had closed one 
volume of the world and its concerns, and had time for 
meditation before I opened another. That land, too, 
now vanishing from my view, which contained all most 

"A LENGTHENING CHAIN": The quotation is from Goldsmith's 
Traveler: 

** Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, 
My heart untraveled fondly turns to thee; 
Still to my brother turns with ceaseless pain, 
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain." 



18 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

dear to me in life; what vicissitudes might occur in it — 
what changes might take place in me, before I should 
visit it again! Who can tell, when he sets forth to 
wander, whither he may be driven by the uncertain 
currents of existence; or when he may return; or 
whether it may ever be his lot to revisit the scenes of 
his childhood? 

I said that at sea all is vacancy; I should correct the 
expression. To one given to day-dreaming, and fond 
of losing himself in reveries, a sea voyage is full of sub- 
jects for meditation; but then they are the wonders of 
the deep and of the air, and rather tend to abstract 
the mind from worldly themes. I delighted to loll 
over the quarter-railing, or climb to the main-top 
of a calm day, and muse for hours together on the 
tranquil bosom of a summer's sea; to gaze upon the 
piles of golden clouds just peering above the horizon, 
fancy them some fairy realms, and people them with a 
creation of my own; — to watch the gentle undulating 
billows, rolling their silver volumes, as if to die away 
on those happy shores. 

To REVISIT THE SCENES OF HIS CHILDHOOD: Irviiig remained 
abroad for seventeen years. 

Quarter-railing: Narrow molded planks reaching from the 
top of the stern to the gangway, serving as a fence to the quarter- 
deck. 

Main-top: The top of a mast of a ship. 

Those happy shores: In this connection read a most deUght- 
ful series of musings by George William Curtis in Prue and I. 



THE VOYAGE 19 

There was a delicious sensation of mingled security 
and awe with which I looked down from my giddy 
height, on the monsters of the deep at their uncouth 
gambols. Shoals of porpoises tumbling about the 
bow of the ship; the grampus slowly heaving his huge 
form above the surface; or the ravenous shark, darting 
like a spectre through the blue waters. My imagina- 
tion would conjure up all that I had heard or read of 
the watery world beneath me; of the finny herds that 
roam its fathomless valleys; of the shapeless monsters 
that lurk among the very foundations of the earth; 
and of those wild phantasms that swell the tales of 
fishermen and sailors. 

Sometimes a distant sail, gliding along the edge of 
the ocean, would be another theme of idle speculation. 
How interesting this fragment of a world, hastening to 
rejoin the great mass of existence! What a glorious 
monument of human invention, which has in a manner 
triumphed over wind and wave, has brought the ends 
of the world into communion, has established an inter- 
change of blessings, pouring into the sterile regions of 
the north all the luxuries of the south, has diffused the 
light of knowledge and the charities of cultivated life, 
and has thus bound together those scattered portions 
of the human race between which nature seemed to 
have thrown an insurmountable barrier. 

Gambols: Skipping or leaping about in a frolic. 

Porpoises: Hog-fishes. 

Grampus : A large fish from fifteen to twenty-five feet in length. 



20 • THE SKETCH-BOOK 

We one day descried some shapeless object drifting 
at a distance. At sea everything that breaks the 
monotony of the surrounding expanse attracts at- 
tention. It proved to be the mast of a ship that must 
have been completely wrecked; for there were the 
remains of handkerchiefs, by which some of the crew 
had fastened themselves to this spar, to prevent their 
being washed off by the waves. There was no trace 
by which the name of the ship could be ascertained. 
The wreck had evidently drifted about for many 
months; clusters of shellfish had fastened about it, 
and long seaweeds flaunted at its sides. But where, 
thought I, is the crew? Their struggle has long been 
over — they have gone down amidst the roar of the 
tempest — their bones lie whitening among the caverns 
of the deep. Silence, oblivion, like the waves, have 
closed over them, and no one can tell the story of their 
end. What sighs have been wafted after that ship! 
what prayers offered up at the deserted fireside of 
home! How often has the mistress, the wife, the 
mother, pored over the daily news, to catch some 
casual intelligence of this rover of the deep! How 
has expectation darkened into anxiety — anxiety into 
dread — and dread into despair! Alas! not one me- 
mento may ever return for love to cherish. All that 
may ever be known is, that she sailed from her port, 
*' and was never heard of more!" 

Descried: To spy out or to discover. 
Spar (nautical) : A long beam, yard, boom. 



THE VOYAGE 21 

The sight of this wreck, as usual, gave rise to many 
dismal anecdotes. This was particularly the case in 
the evening, when the weather, which had hitherto 
been fair, began to look wild and threatening, and 
gave indications of one of those sudden storms which 
will sometimes break in upon the serenity of a summer 
voyage. As we sat round the dull light of a lamp in the 
cabin, that made the gloom more ghastly, every one 
had his tale of shipwreck and disaster. I was par- 
ticularly struck with a short one related by the cap- 
tain. 

'' As I was once sailing," said he, ''in a fine stout 
ship across the banks of Newfoundland, one of those 
heavy fogs which prevail in those parts rendered it 
impossible for us to see far ahead even in the daytime; 
but at night the weather was so thick that we could 
not distinguish any object at twice the length of the 
ship. I kept lights at the masthead, and a constant 
watch forward to look out for fishing smacks, which 
are accustomed to lie at anchor on the banks. The 
wind was blowing a smacking breeze, and we were 
going at a great rate through the water. Suddenly 
the watch gave the alarm of ' a sail ahead! ' — it was 

Banks of Newfoundland: High submarine plateaus off the 
coast of Newfoundland, between 600 and 700 miles in length. 
Dense fogs prevail in this region. 

Fishing smack: A small sailing vessel, rigged as a sloop, used 
chiefly in the coasting and fishing trade. 

Smacking: Making a quick, sharp noise. 



22 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

scarcely uttered before we were upon her. She was a' 
small schooner, at anchor, with her broadside towards 
us. The crew were all asleep, and had neglected to 
hoist a light. We struck her just amidships. The 
force, the size, the weight of our vessel bore her down 
below the waves; we passed over her and were hurried 
on our course. As the crashing wreck was sinking 
beneath us, I had a glimpse of two or three half-naked 
wretches rushing from her cabin; they just started from 
their beds to be swallowed shrieking by the waves. I 
heard their drowning cry mingling with the wind. The 
blast that bore it to our ears swept us out of all farther 
hearing. I shall never forget that cry! It was some 
time before we could put the ship about, she was under 
such headway. We returned, as nearly as we could 
guess, to the place where the smack had anchored. We 
cruised about for several hours in the dense fog. We 
fired signal guns, and listened if we might hear the 
halloo of any survivors: but all was silent — we never 
saw or heard anything of them more." 

I confess these stories, for a time, put an end to all 
my fine fancies. The storm increased with the night. 
The sea was lashed into tremendous confusion. There 
was a fearful sullen sound of rushing waves and broken 
surges. Deep called unto deep. At times the black 
column of clouds overhead seemed rent asunder by 

Put the ship about (nautical) : Change her course by tacking. 
Deep called unto deep: "Deep called unto deep at the noise 
of thy waterspouts." — Psalm xlii, 7. 



24 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

flashes of lightning which quivered along the foaming 
billows and made the succeeding darkness doubly 
terrible. The thunders bellowed over the wild waste 
of waters, and were echoed and prolonged by the 
mountain waves. As I saw the ship staggering and 
plunging among these roaring caverns, it seemed 
miraculous that she regained her balance or preserved 
her buoyancy. Her yards would dip into the water: 
her bow was almost buried beneath the waves. Some- 
times an impending surge appeared ready to overwhelm 
her, and nothing but a dexterous movement of the 
helm preserved her from the shock. 

When I retired to my cabin, the awful scene still fol- 
lowed me. The whistling of the wind through the 
rigging sounded like funereal wailings. The creaking 
of the masts, the straining and groaning of bulk-heads, 
as the ship labored in the weltering sea, were frightful. 
As I heard the waves rushing along the sides of the ship, 
and roaring in my very ear, it seemed as if Death were 
raging round this floating prison, seeking for his prey: 
the mere starting of a nail, the yawning of a seam, might 
give him entrance. 

A fine day, however, with a tranquil sea and favoring 
breeze, soon put all these dismal reflections to flight. 
It is impossible to resist the gladdening influence of fine 



Bulk-heads: Partitions in a vessel to separate apartments 
on the same deck. 

Weltering: To rise and fall, as waves; to tumble over, as 
billows. 



THE VOYAGE 25 

weather and fair wind at sea. When the ship is decked 
out in all her canvas, every sail swelled, and careering 
gayly over the curling waves, how lofty, how gallant 
she appears — how she seems to lord it over the 
deep! 

I might fill a volume with the reveries of a sea voyage, 
for with me it is almost a continual reverie — but it is 
time to get to shore. 

It was a fine sunny morning when the thrilling cry 
of '' Land!" was given from the masthead. None 
but those who have experienced it can form ah idea of 
the delicious throng of sensations which rush into an 
American's bosom when he first comes in sight of 
Europe. There is a volume of associations with the 
very name. It is the land of promise, teeming with 
everything of which his childhood has heard, or on 
which his studious years have pondered. 

From that time until the moment of arrival, it was 
all feverish excitement. The ships of war that prowled 
like guardian giants along the coast, the headlands of 
Ireland stretching out into the channel, the Welsh 
mountains towering into the clouds, — all were objects 
of intense interest. As we sailed up the Mersey, I 
reconnoitred the shores with a telescope. My eye dwelt 
with delight on neat cottages, with their trim shrub- 
beries and green grass plots. I saw the mouldering 
ruin of an abbey overrun with ivy, and the taper spire 

Ships of war: England was at war with France at this time. 
Mersey: A river in England on which Liverpool is situated. 



26 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

of a village church rising from the brow of a neighbor- 
ing hill, — all were characteristic of England. 

The tide and wind were so favorable that the ship 
was enabled to come at once to the pier. It was 
thronged with people; some, idle lookers-on, others, 
eager expectants of friends or relatives. I could 
distinguish the merchant to whom the ship was con- 
signed. I knew him by his calculating brow and rest- 
less air. His hands were thrust into his pockets; he 
was whistling thoughtfully and walking to and fro, 
a small space having been accorded him by the crowd 
in deference to his temporary importance. There were 
repeated cheerings and salutations interchanged be- 
tween the shore and the ship, as friends happened to 
recognize each other. I particularly noticed one young 
woman of humble dress but interesting demeanor. 
She was leaning forward from among the crowd; her 
eye hurried over the ship as it neared the shore, to 
catch some wished-for countenance. She seemed 
disappointed and agitated; when I heard a faint voice 
call her name. It was from a poor sailor who had been 
ill all the voyage, and had excited the sympathy of 
every one on board. When the weather was fine, his 
messmates had spread a mattress for him on deck in 
the shade, but of late his illness had so increased that 
he had taken to his hammock, and only breathed a 
wish that he might see his wife before he died. He 



A VILLAGE church: From Goldsmith's Deserted Village — 
"The decent church that topped the neighboring hill." 



THE VOYAGE 27 

had been helped on deck as we came up the river, and 
was now leaning against the shrouds, with a counte- 
nance so wasted, so pale, so ghastly, that it was no 
wonder even the eye of affection did not recognize him. 
But at the sound of his voice, her eye darted on his 
features; it read at once a whole volume of sorrow; 
she clasped her hands, uttered a faint shriek, and stood 
wringing them in silent agony. 

All now was hurry and bustle. The meetings of 
acquaintances — the greetings of friends — the consulta- 
tions of men of business. I alone was solitary and idle. 
I had no friend to meet, no cheering to receive. I 
stepped upon the land of my forefathers — but I felt 
that I was a stranger in the land. 



SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS 

1 . What is the main idea of the voyage? 

2. In what way does the ocean voyage make us ready for an 
appreciation of Europe? 

3. What is the value of Irving's thoughts? 

4. What were some of the amusements of the voyage? 

5. Recall some of Irving's day-dreams. 

6. In your own words narrate the captain's story. 

7. Why is a sea voyage full of subjects for meditation? 

8. Describe the wreck; the storm; the crowd on the pier. 

9. What great battle had been fought before Irving reached 
Liverpool? 

10. Why did Irving use the expression: "I stepped upon the 
land of my forefathers"? 

11. Select and define the nautical words or phrases used in 
this sketch. 

12. Name the objects of interest as the ship approached the 
shore. 



RIP VAN WINKLE 



A POSTHUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDRICH KNICK- 
ERBOCKER 
By Woden, God of Saxons, 

From whence comes Wensday, that is Wodensday, 
Truth is a thing that ever I will keep 
Unto thylke day in which I creep 
Into my sepulchre — Cartwright. 

[The following Tale was found among the papers 
of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman 

Posthumous: Published after the death of an author. 

Thylke: Compound of thus and like, that same. 

William Cartwright: An English divine and dramatist. 

Knickerbocker: Derived from knicker, to nod, and backer, 
books; one who nods or dozes over books. — Irving. 

Diedrich Knickerbocker: In Bracebridge Hall Irving writes 
as follows: "Diedrich Knickerbocker was a native of New York, 
a descendant from one of the ancient Dutch families which orig- 
inally settled that province and remained there after it was taken 
possession of by the English in 1664. With the laudable heredit- 
ary feeling thus kept up among these worthy people did Mr. 
Knickerbocker undertake to write a history of his native city, 
comprising the reign of its three Dutch governors during the time 

28 



RIP VAN WINKLE 29 

of New- York, who was very curious in the Dutch 
History of the province, and the manners of the de- 
scendants from its primitive settlers. His historical 
researches, however, did not lie so much among books 
as among men; for the former are lamentably scanty 
on his favorite topics ; whereas he found the old burghers 
and still more, their wives, rich in that legendary lore, 
so invaluable to true history. Whenever, therefor-e, 
he happened upon a genuine Dutch family, snugly 
shut up in its low-roofed farm-house, under a spreading 
sycamore, he looked upon it as a little clasped volume 
of black-letter, and studied it with the zeal of a book- 
worm. 

The result of all these researches was a history of the 
province, during the reign of the Dutch governors, 
which he published some years since. There have been 
various opinions as to the literary character of his work, 
and, to tell the truth, it is not a whit better than it 
should be. Its chief merit is its scrupulous accuracy, 
which, indeed, was a little questioned, on its first ap- 
pearance, but has since been completely established; 



that it was yet under the domination of the Hogenmogens (the 
High Mightinesses) of Holland. In the execution of this design 
the little Dutchman has displayed great historical research and a 
wonderful consciousness of the dignity of his subject. His work, 
however, has been so httle understood as to be pronounced a mere 
work of humor, satirizing the folhes of the times, both in poUtics 
and morals, and giving whimsical views of human nature." 

The History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker 
(Washington Irving), was published in 1809. 



30 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

and it is now admitted into all historical collections, 
as a book of unquestionable authority. 

The old gentleman died shortly after the publication 
of his work, and now, that he is dead and gone, it 
cannot do much harm to his memory, to say, that his 
time might have been much better employed in 
weightier labors. He, however, was apt to ride his 
hobby in his own way; and though it did now and then 
kick up the dust a little in the eyes of his neighbors, 
and grieve the spirit of some friends for whom he felt 
the truest deference and affection, yet his errors and 
follies are remembered '' more in sorrow than in anger," 
and it begins to be suspected, that he never intended 
to injure or offend. But however his memory may be 
appreciated by critics, it is still held dear among many 
folk, whose good opinion is well worth having; par- 
ticularly by certain biscuit-bakers, who have gone so 
far as to imprint his likeness on their new-year cakes, 
and have thus given him a chance for immortality, 

What is it ''to ride a hobby"? What does the author mean 
by the expression, "kick up the dust a little in the eyes of his 
neighbors"? 

" The History of New York was received with almost uni- 
versal acclaim. It is true that some of the old Dutch inhabitants 
who sat down to its perusal, expecting to read a veritable account 
of the exploits of their ancestors, were puzzled by the indirection 
of its commendation, and several excellent old ladies of New York 
and Albany were in blazing indignation at the ridicule put upon 
the old Dutch people, and minded to ostracize the irreverent 
author from all social recognition." — Charles Dudley Warner's 
Life of Irving. 



RIP VAN WINKLE 81 

almost equal to the being stamped on a Waterloo 
medal, or a Queen Anne's farthing.] 

Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson, must 
remember the Kaatskill Mountains. They are a dis- 
membered branch of the great Appalachian family, and 
are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a 
noble height, and lording . it over the surrounding 
country. Every change of season, every change of 
weather, indeed every hour of the day produces some 
change in the magical hues and shapes of these moun- 
tains; and they are regarded by all the good wives, far 
and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather 
is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, 
and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; 
but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloud- 
less, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their 
summits, which in the last rays of the setting sun, will 
glow and light up like a crown of glory. 

At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager 

Waterloo medal: A medal of honor given to British soldiers 
for the battle of Waterloo, June 15, 1S15. 

Queen Anne's farthing: A vahiable coin on account of its 
rarity. For a number of years it was supposed that a small 
number of these farthings were coined. 

Kaatskill: Now written Catskill. 

Why did the good wives regard the Catskill Mountains as 
*' perfect barometers"? 

In the year 1800 Irving made his first voyage up the Hudson in 
a sloop. It was in the good old days before steamboats and rail- 
roads had annihilated time and space and driven all poetry and 



32 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

may have descried the Ught smoke curHng up from a 
village, whose shingle roofs gleam among the trees, 
just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into 
the fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little 
village of great antiquity, having been founded by some 
of the Dutch colonists, in the early times of the province 
just about the beginning of the government of the good 
Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!), and there were 



romance out of travel. Many years afterward he wrote of this 
experience: "But of all the scenery of the Hudson, the Kaatskill 
Mountains had the most witching effect upon my boyish imagin- 
ation. Never shall I forget the effect upon me of the first view 
of them, predominating over a wide extent of country, part wild, 
woody, and rugged; part softened away into all the graces of 
cultivation. As we slowly floated along I lay on the deck and 
watched them through a long summer's day, undergoing a thou- 
sand mutations under the magical effects of atmosphere; some- 
times seeming to approach, at other times to recede; now almost 
melting into hazy distance, now burnished by the sun, until, in 
the evening, they printed themselves against the sky in the deep 
purple of an Italian landscape." 

At the time that Rip Van Winkle was written (1819) Irving 
had seen the Catskills only from the river. In 1832, on his 
return from Europe, he visited the Catskills for the first time. 

Irving had no special village in view when he wrote this story. 
In the play of "Rip Van Winkle" it is called the village of 
"Falling Water." 

Peter Stuyvesant: The fourth and last governor of New 
Netherlands arrived in 1647. He was intolerant in religious 
affairs, and raised a vigorous opposition on account of his con- 
tempt for popular rights. In 1655 he attacked the Swedish 
colony of Delaware and annexed it to the Dutch possessions. 



RIP VAN WINKLE 33 

some of the houses of the original settlers standing 
within a few years, l)uilt of small yellow bricks, brought 
from Holland, having latticed windows and gable 
fronts, surmounted with weathercocks. 

In that same village, and in one of these very houses 
(which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn 
and weather-beaten), there lived many years since, 
while the country was yet a province of Great Britain, 
a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van 
Winkle. He was a descendant of the Van Winkles who 
figured so gallantly in the chivalrous days of Peter 
Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of fort 
Christina. He inherited, however, but little of the 
martial character of his ancestors. I have observed 
that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was 

When the English fleet came to New Amsterdam in 1664 Stuy- 
vesant coukl make no effective resistance and signed a treaty of 
surrender September 9th. He continued to reside in New York 
on his extensive farm of Great Bouwerie, and died there. 

Province of Great Britain: The British, under the Duke of 
York, took control of New Netherlands in 1664 and changed its 
name to New York. Holland got possession of it again in 1673 
during a war with England, but in 1674 it was surrendered by 
treaty to England. 

The province of New Netherlands was settled on Manhattan 
Island in 1613. 

Fort Christina: The Swedish settlement near the present 
site of Wilmington, Delaware, which Stuyvesant captured was 
called Fort Christina. 

Define the following expressions: "A simple man"; "hen- 
pecked"; obsequious and conciliating abroad,"; curtain lecture." 



34 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

moreover a kind neighbor, and an obedient henpecked ^ 
husband. Indeed, to the latter circumstance might 
be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him 
such universal popularity; for those men are most apt 
to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are 
under the discipline of shrews at home. Their tempers, 
doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery 
furnace of domestic tribulation, and a curtain lecture 
is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the 
virtues of patience and long-suffering. A termagant 
wife may, therefore, in some respects, be considered 
a tolerable blessing; and if so. Rip Van Winkle was 
thrice blessed. 

Certain it is, that he was a great favorite among all 
the good wives of the village, who, as usual with the 
amiable sex, took his part in all family squabbles, and 
never failed, whenever they talked those matters over 
in their evening gossipings, to lay all the blame on 
Dame Van Winkle. The children of the village, too, 
would shout with joy whenever he approached. He 
assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught 

Obsequious: Slavishly ready to fall in with the will or wish of 
another. 

Termagant: Boisterous, furious, quarrelsome, scolding. 

In what way was Rip Van Winkle "thrice blessed"? How 
did the amiable sex look upon Rip's domestic squabbles? How 
did the children regard Rip? the dogs? What was the great 
error in Rip's composition? What is the significance of the word 
"profitable" in the expression, "an insuperable aversion to all 
kinds of profitable labor"? Was Rip's labor profitable? 



RIP VAN WINKLE 35 

them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long 
stories of ghosts, witches, and Indians. Whenever he 
went dodging about the village, he was surrounded by a 
troop of them hanging on his skirts, clambering on his 
back, and playing a thousand tricks on him with im- 
punity; and not a dog would bark at him throughout 
the neighborhood. 

The great error in Rip's composition was an insuper- 
able aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. It could 
not be from the want of assiduity or perseverance; for 
he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy 
as a Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a murmur, 
even though he should not be encouraged by a single 
nibble. He would carry a fowling-piece on his shoulder, 
for hours together, trudging through woods and swamps 
and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or 
wild pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neigh- 
bor even in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man 
at all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or build- 
ing stone fences. The women of the village, too, used 
to employ him to run their errands, and to do such 
little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would 
not do for them; — in a word, Rip was ready to attend 
to anybody's business but his own; but as to doing 
family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found 
it impossible. 

In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his 
farm ; it was the most pestilent little piece of ground in 

What is a ''Tartar's lance"? 



36 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

the whole country; everything about it went wrong,' 
and would go wrong in spite of him. His fences were 
continually falling to pieces; his cow would either go 
astray, or get among the cabbages; weeds were sure 
to grow quicker in his fields than anywhere else; the 
rain always made a point of setting in just as he had 
some out-door work to do; so that though his patri- 
nionial estate had dwindled away under his manage- 
ment, acre by acre, until there was little more left than 
a mere patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it was 
the worst conditioned farm in the neighborhood. 

His children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they 
belonged to nobody. His son Rip, an urchin begotten 
in his own likeness, promised to inherit the habits, with 
the old clothes of his father. He was generally seen 
trooping like a colt at his mother's heels, equipped in a 
pair of his father's cast-off galligaskins, which he had 
much ado to hold up with one hand, as a fine lady does 
her train in bad weather. 

Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy 
mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take 
the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever 
can be got with least thought or trouble, and would 
rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. If 
left to himself, he would have whistled life away, in 
perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually 

Patrimonial: Pertaining to an estate inherited from one's 
ancestors. 

GAiiUGASKiNs: Loose breeches in general. 



RIP VAN WINKLE 37 

dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, 
and the ruin he was bringing on his family. 

Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly 
going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce 
a torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one 
way of replying to all lectures of the kind, and that, by 
frequent use, had grown into a habit. He shrugged 
his shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said 
nothing. This, however, always provoked a fresh 
volley from his wife, so that he was fain to draw off his 
forces, and take to the outside of the house — the only 
side which, in truth, belongs to a henpecked husband. 

Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who 
was as much henpecked as his master; for Dame Van 
Winkle regarded them as companions in idleness, and 
even looked upon Wolf with an evil eye, as the cause of 
his master's going so often astray. True it is, in all 
points of spirit befitting an honorable dog, he was as 
courageous an animal as ever scoured the woods — 
but what courage can withstand the ever-during and 
all-besetting terrors of a woman's tongue? The 
moment Wolf entered the house, his crest fell, his tail 
drooped to the ground, or curled between his legs, he 
sneaked about with a gallows air, casting many a side- 
ling glance at Dame Van Winkle, and at the least 

Terrors of a woman's tongue: In this connection read 
Taming of the Shrew, Act I, Sc. 2. 

What is meant by "a gallows air"? "yelping precipitation"? 
"a tart temper never mellows with age"? 



38 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

flourish of a broomstick or ladle, he would fly to the 
door with yelping precipitation. 

Time grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle, as 
years of matrimony rolled on: a tart temper never 
mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged 
tool that grows keener with constant use. For a long 
while he used to console himself, when driven from 
home, by frequenting a kind of perpetual club of the 
sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the 
village, which held its sessions on a bench before a small 
inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of his majesty 
George the Third. Here they used to sit in the shade 
of a long lazy summer's day, talking listlessly over 
village gossip, or telling endless sleepy stories about 
nothing. But it would have been worth any states- 
man's money to have heard the profound discussions 
which sometimes took place, when by chance an old 
newspaper fell into their hands, from some passing 
traveller. How solemnly they would listen to the con- 
tents, as drawled out by Derrick Van Bummel, the 
schoolmaster, a dapper, learned little man, who was 
not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in the 
dictionary; and how sagely they would deliberate 
upon public events some months after they had taken 
place. 

Is the phrase "perpetual club of the sages" ironical? 
Rubicund: Reddish. 
Dapper: Little and active. 



RIP VAN WINKLE 39 

The opinions of this junto were completely controlled 
by Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and 
landlord of the inn, at the door of which he took his 
seat from morning till night, just moving sufficiently 
to avoid the sun, and keep in the shade of a large tree; 
so that the neighbors could tell the hour by his move- 
ments as accurately as by a sun-dial. It is true, he 
was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his pipe inces- 
santly. His adherents, however, (for every great man 
has his adherents,) perfectly understood him, and knew 
how to gather his opinions. When anything that was 
read or related displeased him, he was observed to 
smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send forth short, 
frequent, and angry puffs; but when pleased, he would 
inhale the smoke slowly and tranquilly, and emit it in 
light and placid clouds, and sometimes taking the pipe 
from his mouth, and, letting the fragrant vapor curl 
about his nose, would gravely nod his head in token of 
perfect approbation. 

From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at 
length routed by his termagant wife, who would sud- 
denly break in upon the tranquiUity of the assemblage, 

Junto: A combination of persons openly or secretly engaged 
for political purposes. 

Patriarch: The father and ruler of a family; a venerable old 
man. 

Sun-dial: An instrument for indicating the time by means of 
the position of a shadow on a dial; before the invention of watches 
and clocks sun-dials were the means of telling time. 



40 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

and call the members all to nought; nor was that august 
personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the 
daring tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him 
outright with encouraging her husband in habits of 
idleness. 

Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair, and 
his only alternative to escape from the labor of the 
farm and the clamor of his wife was to take gun in hand, 
and stroll away into the woods. Here he would some- 
times seat himself at the foot of a tree, and share the 
contents of his wallet with Wolf, with whom he sym- 
pathized as a fellow-sufferer in persecution. '' Poor 
Wolf," he would say, '' thy mistress leads thee a dog's 
life of it; but never mind, my lad, whilst I live thou 
shalt never want a friend to stand by thee!" Wolf 
would wag his tail, look wistfully in his master's face, 
and if dogs can feel pity, I verily believe he reciprocated 
the sentiment with all his heart. 

In a long ramble of the kind, on a fine autumnal day. 
Rip had unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest 
parts of the Kaatskill Mountains. He was after his 
favorite sport of squirrel-shooting, and the still soli- 
tudes had echoed and re-echoed with the reports of his 
gun. Panting and fatigued, he threw himself, late in 
the afternoon, on a green knoll covered with mountain 
herbage, that crowned the brow of a precipice. From 

Virago: A female warrior. 

Wallet: A pocket-book, especially a large one for containing 
papers and bank-notes. 



BIP VAN WINKLE 41 

an opening between the trees, he could overlook all the 
lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He 
saw at a distance the lordly Hudson, -far, far below 
him, moving on its silent but majestic course, with the 
reflection of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging bark, 
here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last 
losing itself in the blue highlands. 

On the other side he looked down into a deep moun- 
tain glen, wild, lonely, and shagged, the bottom filled 
with fragments from the impending cliffs, and scarcely 
lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun. For 
some time Rip lay musing on this scene; evening was 
gradually advancing; the mountains began to throw 
their long blue shadows over the valleys; he saw that 
it would be dark long before he could reach the village; 
and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of en- 
countering the terrors of Dame Van Winkle. 

As he was about to descend he heard a voice from a 
distance hallooing, '' Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van 
Winkle!" He looked around, but could see nothing 
but a crow winging its solitary flight across the moun- 
tain. He thought his fancy must have deceived him, 
and turned again to descend, when he heard the same 
ring through the still evening air, '' Rip Van Winkle! 
Rip Van Winkle!" — at the same time Wolf bristled up 
his back, and giving a low growl, skulked to his master's 
side, looking fearfully down into the glen. Rip now 

Shagged: Covered with some scrubby growth. 
Impending : Overhanging. 



42 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

felt a vague apprehension stealing over him; he looked' 
anxiously in the same direction, and perceived a strange 
figure slowly toiling up the rocks, and bending under 
the weight of something he carried on his back. He 
was surprised to see any human being in this lonely and 
unfrequented place, but supposing it to be some one 
of the neighborhood in need of his assistance, he has- 
tened down to yield it. 

On nearer approach, he was still more surprised at the 
singularity of the stranger's appearance. He was a 
short square-built old fellow, with thick bushy hair, 
and a grizzled beard. His dress was of the antique 
Dutch fashion — a cloth jerkin strapped round the 
waist — several pair of breeches, the outer one of ample 
volume, decorated with rows of buttons down the 
sides, and bunches at the knees. He bore on his shoul- 
ders a stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made 
signs for Rip to approach and assist him with the load. 
Though rather shy and distrustful of this new acquain- 
tance, Rip complied with his usual alacrity, and mutu- 
ally relieving each other, they clambered up a narrow 
gully, apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent. 
As they ascended. Rip every now and then heard long 
rolling peals, like distant thunder, that seemed to issue 
out of a deep ravine, or rather cleft between lofty rocks. 

Grizzled: An old or gray-haired person. 

Jerkin: A short close-fitting coat or jacket worn in the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries. 

Gully: A channel worn in the earth by running water. 



RTF VAN WINKLE 43 

toward which their rugged path conducted. He paused 
for an instant, but supposing it to be the muttering of 
one of those transient thunder-showers which often 
take place in the mountain heights, he proceeded. 
Passing through the ravine, they came to a hollow, 
like a small amphitheatre, surrounded by perpendicular 
precipices, over the brinks of which impending trees 
shot their branches, so that you only caught glimpses of 
the azure sky, and the bright evening cloud. During 
the whole time, Rip and his companion had labored 
on in silence; for though the former marvelled greatly 
what could be the object of carrying a keg of liquor up 
this wild mountain, yet there was something strange 
and incomprehensible about the unknown, that in- 
spired awe, and checked familiarity. 

On entering the amphitheatre, new objects of wonder 
presented themselves. On a level spot in the centre 
was a company of odd-looking personages playing at 
nine-pins. They were dressed in a quaint outlandish 
fashion; some wore short doublets, other jerkins, with 
long knives in their belts, and most of them had enor- 
mous breeches, of similar style with that of the guide's. 

Amphitheatre: An oval or circular building with seats rising 
behind and above each other around a central open space. 

What objects of wonder presented themselves to Rip? What is 
meant by "a quaint outlandish fashion"? What was peculiar 
about the "visages" of these strange characters? 

Doublet: Originally a wadded garment; it had short skirts 
and was girded round the body with a belt of leather. 



44 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

Their visages too, were peculiar: one had a large head, 
broad face, and small piggish eyes; the face of another 
seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted 
by a white sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little red cock's 
tail. They all had beards, of various shapes and 
colors. There was one who seemed to be the com- 
mander. He was a stout old gentleman, with a weather- 
beaten countenance; he wore a laced doublet, broad 
belt and hanger, high-crowned hat and feather, red 
stockings, and high-heeled shoes, with roses in them. 
The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an 
old Flemish painting, in the parlor of Dominie Van 
Schaick, the village parson, and which had been 
brought over from Holland at the time of the settle- 
ment. 

What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that 
though these folks were evidently amusing themselves, 
yet they maintained the gravest faces, the most mys- 
terious silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy 
party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. Nothing in- 
terrupted the stillness of the scene but the noise of the 
balls, which, whenever they were rolled, echoed along 
the mountains like rumbling peals of thunder. 

As Rip and his companion approached them, they 



Sugar-loaf hat: It was commonly worn in the seventeenth 
century; it had a high-pointed crown. 

Describe the "commander" of this strange group. 

Dominie: A title applied to clergymen, especially of the 
Dutch Reformed Church. 



RIP VAN WINKLE 45 

suddenly desisted from their play, and stared at him 
with such a fixed statue-like gaze, and such strange, 
uncouth, lack-lustre countenances, that his heart turned 
within him, and his knees smote together. His compan- 
ion now emptied the contents of the keg into large 
flagons, and made signs to him to wait upon the com- 
pany. He obeyed with fear and trembling; they 
quaffed the liquor in profound silence, and then re- 
turned to their game. 

B}^ degrees, Rip's awe and apprehension subsided. 
He even ventured, when no eye was fixed upon him, to 
taste the beverage, which he found had much of the 
flavor of excellent Hollands. He was naturally a 
thirsty soul, and was soon tempted to repeat the 
draught. One taste provoked another, and he re- 
iterated his visits to the flagon so often, that at length 
his senses were overpowered, his eyes swam in his 
head, his head gradually' declined, and he fell into a 
deep sleep. 

On waking, he found himself on the green knoll from 
whence he had first seen the old man of the glen. He 
rubbed his eyes — it was a bright sunny morning. The 
birds were hopping and twittering among the bushes, 
and the eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure 
mountain breeze. '' Surely," thought Rip, " I have 
not slept here all night." He recalled the occurrences 
before he fell asleep. The strange man with the keg 
of liquor — the mountain ravine — the wild retreat 

Hollands: Gin imported from Holland. 



46 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

among the rocks — the woe-begone party at nine-pins — ^ 
the flagon — " Oh! that wicked flagon!" thought Rip — 
^' what excuse shaU I make to Dame Van Winkle?" 

He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean 
well-oiled fowling-piece, he found an old firelock lying 
by him, the barrel encrusted with rust, the lock faUing 
off, and the stock worm-eaten. He now suspected 
that the grave roysterers of the mountain had put a 
trick upon him, and having dosed him with liquor, 
had robbed him of his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared, 
but he might have strayed away after a squirrel or 
partridge. He whistled after him and shouted his 
name, but all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle 
and shout, but no dog was to be seen. 

He determined to revisit the scene of the last 
evening's gambol, and if he met with any of the party, 
to demand his dog and gun. As he rose to walk, he 
found himself stiff in the joint's, and wanting in his usual 
activity. " These mountain beds do not agree with me," 
thought Rip, " and if this frolic should lay me up with 
a fit of the rheumatism, I shall have a blessed time with 
Dame Van Winkle." With some difficulty he got down 
into the glen; he found the gully up which he and his 
companion had ascended the preceding evening; but to 
his astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming 
down it, leaping from rock to rock, and filling the glen 
with babbling murmurs. He, however, made shift to 

Firelock: Flintlock. 

Roysterers: Loud-voiced or rollicking fellows. 



RIP VAN WINKLE 47 

scramble up its sides, working his toilsome way through 
thickets of birch, sassafras, and witch-hazel; and some- 
times tripped up or entangled by the wild grape vines 
that twisted their coils and tendrils from tree to tree, 
and spread a kind of network in his path. 

At length he reached to where the ravine had opened 
through the chffs to the amphitheatre; but no traces of 
such opening remained. The rocks presented a high 
impenetrable wall, over which the torrent came tum- 
bling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad 
deep basin, black from the shadows of the surrounding 
forest. Here, then, poor Rip was brought to a stand. 
He again called and whistled after his dog; he was only 
answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows, sporting 
high in the air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny 
precipice; and who, secure in their elevation, seemed to 
look down and scoff at the poor man's perplexities. 
What was to be done? The morning was passing away, 
and Rip felt famished for want of his breakfast. He 
grieved to give up his dog and gun; he dreaded to meet 
his wife; but it would not do to starve among the 
mountains. He shook his head, shouldered the rusty 
firelock, and, with a heart full of troul:)le and anxiety, 
turned his steps homeward. 

As he approached the village, he met a number of 
people, but none whom he knew, which somewhat sur- 
prised him, for he had thought himself acquainted with 
every one in the country round. Their dress, too, was 
of a different fashion from that to which he was ac- 
customed. They all stared at him with equal marks of 



48 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

surprise, and whenever they cast eyes upon him, in- 
variably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence 
of this gesture, induced Rip, invohmtarily, to do the 
same, when, to his astonishment, he found his beard 
had grown a foot long! 

He had now entered the skirts of the village. A 
troop of strange children ran at his heels, hooting after 
him, and pointing at his gray beard. The dogs, too, 
not one of which he recognized for an old acquaintance, 
barked at him as he passed. The very village was 
altered: it was larger and more populous. There were 
rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those 
which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. 
Strange names were over the doors — strange faces 
at the windows — everything was strange. His mind 
now misgave him; he began to doubt whether both he 
and the world around him were not bewitched. Surely 
this was his native village, which he had left but a day 
before. There stood the Kaatskill Mountains — there 
ran the silver Hudson at a distance — there was every 
hill and dale precisely as it had always been — Rip was 
sorely perplexed — '' That flagon last night," thought 
he, '' has addled my poor head sadly!" 

It was with some difficulty that he found the way to 
his own house, which he approached with silent awe, 
expecting every moment to hear the shrill voice of 
Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to 

Flagon: Bottle with a narrow mouth used for holding liquors. 
Addled: Muddled, confused. 



RIP VAN WINKLE 49 

decay — the roof fallen in, the windows shattered, 
and the doors off the hinges. A half-starved dog, that 
looked like Wolf, was .skulking about it. Rip called 
him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, 
and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed. — 
" My very dog," sighed poor Rip, '' has forgotten 
me!" 

He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, Dame 
Van Winkle had always kept in neat order. It was 
empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned. This 
desolateness overcame all his connubial fears — he called 
loudly for his wife and children — the lonely chambers 
rang for a moment with his voice, and then all again 
was silence. 

He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, 
the village inn — but it too was gone. A large rickety 
wooden building stood in its place, with great gaping 
windows, some of them broken, and mended with 
old hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted, 
''The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." In- 
stead of the great tree that used to shelter the quiet 
little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall 
naked pole, with something on the top that looked like 
a red night-cap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on 
which was a singular assemblage of stars and stripes — 

A TALL NAKED POLE : A flag-pole or liberty pole, on which was 
a red cap. 

Red night-cap : A liberty-cap. During the French Revolution 
the red cap was regarded as the symbol of liberty. 



50 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

all this was strange and incomprehensible. He recog- 
nized on the sign, however, the ruby face of King 
George, under which he had smoked so many a peace- 
ful pipe, but even this was singularly metamorphosed. 
The red coat was changed for one of blue and buff, a 
sword was held in the hand instead of a sceptre, the 
head was decorated with a cocked hat, and under- 
neath was painted in large characters. General 
Washington. 

There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, 
but none that Rip recollected. The very character 
of the people seemed changed. There was a busy, 
bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the 
accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He 
looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his 
broad face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering 
clouds of tobacco smoke, instead of idle speeches; or 
Van Brummel, the schoolmaster, doling forth the con- 
tents of an ancient newspaper. In place of these, a 
lean bilious-looking fellow, with his pockets full of 
handbills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of 
citizens — election: — members of Congress — liberty — 
Bunker's Hill — heroes of seventy-six — and other words, 
that were a perfect Ba])ylonish jargon to the bewildered 
Van Winkle. 

The appearance of Rip, with his long, grizzled beard, 
his rusty fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and the 

Phlegm : in this connection the word means dulness, stupidity. 
Babylonish jargon: Confused talk. 



RIP VAN WINKLE 51 

army of women and children that had gathered at his 
heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern poH- 
ticians. They crowded round him, eyeing him from 
head to foot, with great curiosity. The orator bustled 
up to him, and drawing him partly aside, inquired, 
'' On which side he voted?" Rip stared in vacant 
stupidity. Another short but busy little fellow pulled 
him by the arm, and rising on tiptoe, inquired in his 
ear, " Whether he was Federal or Democrat?" Rip 
was equally at a loss to comprehend the question; 
when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a 
sharp cocked hat, made his way through the crowd, 
putting them to the right and left with his elbows as 
he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, 
with one arm a-kimbo, the other resting on his cane, 
his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, as it were, 
into his very soul, demanded in an austere tone, 
'^ What brought him to the election with a gun on his 
shoulder, and a mob at his heels, and whether he meant 
to breed a riot in the village?" 

'^ Alas! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, 
'^ I am a poor, quiet man, a native of the place, and a 
loyal subject of the King, God bless him!" 

Here a general shout burst from the bystanders — 



Federal or Democrat: The Federal party was friendly to the 
adoption of the Constitution, while the Anti-Federal, or Demo- 
cratic party, was opposed to it. 

A-KIMBO : To rest the hand on the hip with the elbow thrown 
forward and out. 



52 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

" a tory! a tory! a spy! a refugee! hustle him! away with 
him!" 

It was with great difficulty that the self-important 
man in the cocked hat restored order; and having 
assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again 
of the unknown culprit, what he came there for, and 
whom he was seeking. The poor man humbly assured 
him that he meant no harm, but merely came there in 
search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep about 
the tavern. 

" Well — who are they? — name them." 

Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, 
" Where's Nicholas Vedder?" 

There was a silence for a little while, when an old 
man replied, in a thin, piping voice, " Nicholas Vedder? 
why, he is dead and gone these eighteen years! There 
was a wooden tomb-stone in the church-yard that used 
to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone 
too." 

" Where's Brom Butcher?" 

'' Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the 
war; some say he was killed at the storming of Stony- 
Point — others say he was drowned in the squall, at the 



Tory : A member of the British party during the Revolutionary 
War. 

Stony-Point: A rocky promontory on the Hudson. The fort 
on its top was stormed and captured by General Anthony Wayne, 
July 16, 1779. 



RIP VAN WINKLE 53 

foot of Antony's Nose. I don't know — he never came 
back again." 

*' Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?" 

^' He went off to the wars, too; was a great miHtia 
general, and is now in Congress." 

Rip's heart died away, at hearing of these sad changes 
in his home and friends, and finding himself thus alone 
in the world. Every answer puzzled him, too, by treat- 
ing of such enormous lapses of time, and of matters 
which he could not understand: war — Congress — 
Stony-Point! — he had no courage 'to ask after any 
more friends, but cried out in despair, " Does nobody 
here know Rip Van Winkle?" 

'' Oh, Rip Van Winkle!" exclaimed two or three. 
'^ Oh to be sure! that's Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning 
against the tree." 

Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of him- 
self as he went up the mountain; apparently as lazy, 
and certainly as ragged. The poor fellow was now 
completely confounded. He doubted his own identity, 
and whether he was himself or another man. In the 
midst of his bewilderment, the man in the cocked hat 
demanded who he was, and what was his name? 

'' God knows," exclaimed he at his wit's end; " I'm 
not myself — I'm somebody else — that's me yonder — 
no — that's somebody else, got into my shoes — I was 



Antony's Nose : A fanciful name applied by Irving to a rocky 
promontory on the Hudson. See Irving's History of New York, 
Book VI, ch. iv. 



54 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and 
they changed my gun, and everything's changed, and I'm 
changed, and I can't tell what's my name, or who I am!" 

The bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, 
wink significantly, and tap their fingers against their 
foreheads. There was a whisper, also, about securing 
the gun, and keeping the old fellow from doing mis- 
chief; at the very suggestion of which, the self-import- 
ant man with the cocked hat retired with some pre- 
cipitation. At this critical moment a fresh comely 
woman passed through the throng to get a peep at the 
gray-bearded man. She had a chubby child in her 
arms, which, frightened at his looks, began to cry, 
'^ Hush, Rip," cried she, '' hush, you little fool; the old 
man won't hurt you." The name of the child, the air 
of the mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened a 
train of recollections in his mind. 

'^ What is your name, my good woman?" asked he. 

" Judith Gardenier." 

'' And your father's name? " 

'^ Ah, poor man, his name was Rip Van Winkle; its 
twenty years since he went away from home with his 
gun, and never has been heard of since — his dog came 
home without him; but whether he shot himself, or 
was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I 
was then but a little girl." 

Rip had but one question more to ask; but he put it 
with a faltering voice: 

" Where's your mother?" 

Oh, she too had died but a short time since: she 



RIP VAN WINKLE 55 

broke a blood-vessel in a fit of passion at a New- 
England peddler. 

There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelli- 
gence. The honest man could contain himself no 
longer. He caught his daughter and her child in his 
arms. '^ I am your father!" cried he — " Young Rip 
Van Winkle once — old Rip Van Winkle now — Does 
nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle!" 

All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out 
from among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, and 
peering under it in his face for a moment, exclaimed, 
*' Sure enough! it is Rip Van Winkle — it is himself. 
Welcome home again old neighbor — Why, where have 
you been these twenty long years?" 

Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty 
years had been to him but as one night. The neighbors 
stared when they heard it; some were seen to wink at 
each other, and put their tongues in their cheeks; and 
the self-important man in the cocked hat, who, when 
the alarm was over, had returned to the field, screwed 
down the corners of his mouth, and shook his head — 
upon which there was a general shaking of the head 
throughout the assemblage. 

It was determined, however, to take the opinion of 
old Peter Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing 
up the road. He was a descendant of the historian 
of that name, who wrote one of the earliest accounts of 



Adrian Vanderdonk published his Description of New Nether- 
land in 1656. 



56 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

the province. Peter was the most ancient inhabitant ' 
of the village, and well versed in all the wonderful events 
and traditions of the neighborhood. He recollected 
Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most 
satisfactory manner. He assured the company that it 
was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, 
that the Kaatskill Mountains had always been haunted 
by strange beings. That it was affirmed that the great 
Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and 
country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, 
with his crew of the Half-moon, being permitted in this 
way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and keep a 
guardian eye upon the river and the great city called 
by his name. That his father had once seen them in 
their old Dutch dresses playing at nine-pins in the 
hollow of the mountain; and that he himself had heard, 
one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like 
distant peals of thunder. 

To make a long story short, the company broke up, 
and returned to the more important concerns of the 
election. Rip's daughter took him home to live with 
her; she had a snug, well-furnished house, and a stout 
cheery farmer for a husband, whom Rip recollected 
for one of the urchins that used to climb upon his 
back. As to Rip's son and heir, who was the ditto of 
himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was employed 
to work on the farm; but evinced a hereditary disposi- 
tion to attend to anything else but his business. 

Hendrick Hudson's vessel was called ''The Half-Moon." 



RIP VAN WINKLE 57 

Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon 
found many of his former cronies, though all rather the 
worse for the wear and tear of time ; and preferred mak- 
ing friends among the rising generation, with whom he 
soon grew into great favor. 

Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at 
that happy age when a man can do nothing with im- 
punity, he took his place once more on the bench, at the 
inn door, and was reverenced as one of the patriarchs of 
the village, and a chronicle of the old times " before 
the war." It was some time before he could get into 
the regular track of gossip, or could be made to com- 
prehend the strange events that had taken place during 
his torpor. How that there had been a revolutionary 
war — that the country had thrown off the yoke of old 
England — and that, instead of being a subject of his 
majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen 
of the United States. Rip, in fact, was no politician; 
the changes of states and empires made but little im- 
pression on him ; but there was one species of despotism 
under which he had long groaned, and that was — 
petticoat government. Happily, that was at an end; 
he had got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and 
could go in and out whenever he pleased, without dread- 
ing the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her 
name was mentioned, however, he shook his head, 
shrugged his shoulders, and cast up his eyes; which 
might pass either for an expression of resignation to his 
fate, or joy at his deliverance. 

He used to tell his story to every stranger that ar- 



58 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

rived at Mr. Doolittle's hotel. He was observed, at" 
first, to vary on some points every time he told it, which 
was doubtless owing to his having so recently awaked. 
It at last settled down precisely to the tale I have 
related, and not a man, woman, or child in the neigh- 
borhood, but knew it by heart. Some always pretended 
to doubt the reality of it, and insisted that Rip had been 
out of his head, and that this was one point on which he 
always remained flighty. The old Dutch inhabitants, 
however, almost universally gave it full credit. Even 
to this day, they never hear a thunder-storm of a sum- 
mer afternoon about the Kaatskill, but they say 
Hendrick Hudson and his crew are at their game of 
nine-pins; and it is a common wish of all henpecked 
husbands in the neighborhood when life hangs heavy 
on their hands, that they might have a quieting draught 
out of Rip Van Winkle's flagon. 

NOTE 

The foregoing Tale, one would suspect, had been suggested to 
Mr. Knickerbocker by a little German superstition about the 
Emperor Frederick der Rothhart, and the Kyffhauser Mountain: 
the subjoined note, however, which he had appended to the tale, 
shows that it is an absolute fact, narrated with his usual fidelity: 

"The story of Rip Van Winkle may seem incredible to many, 
but nevertheless I give it my full behef, for I know the vicinity 
of our old Dutch settlements to have been very subject to marvel- 
lous events and appearances. Indeed, I have heard many 
stranger stories than this, in the villages along the Hudson; all 
of which were too well authenticated to admit of a doubt. I 
have even talked with Rip Van Winkle myself, who, when last 
I saw him, was a very venerable old man, and so perfectly 



RIP VAN WINKLE 69 

rational and consistent on every other point that I think no 
conscientious person eould refuse to take this into the l)argain; 
nay, I have seen a certihcate on the subject taken before a country 
justice and signed with a cross in the justice's own liand writing. 
The story, therefore, is beyond the possibility of doubt. 

D. K." 
POSTCRIPT 

The following are travelling notes from a memorandum-book 
of Mr. Knickerbocker: 

The Kaatsberg, or Catskill Mountains, have always been a 
region full of fable. The Indians considered them the abode of 
spirits, who influenced the weather, spreading sunshine or clouds 
over the landscape, and sending good or bad hunting seasons. 
They were ruled by an old squaw spirit, said to be their mother. 
She dwelt on the highest peak of the Catskills, and had charge of 
the doors of day and night to open and shut them at the proper 
hour. She hung up the new moons in the skies, and cut up the 
old ones into stars. In times of drought, if properly propitiated, 
she would spin light summer clouds out of cobwebs and morning 
dew, and send them off from the crest of the mountain, flake after 
flake, like flakes of carded cotton, to float in the air; until, dis- 
solved by the heat of the sun, they would fall in gentle showers, 
causing the grass to spring, the fruits to ripen, and the corn to 
grow an inch an hour. If displeased, however, she would brew 
up clouds black as ink, sitting in the midst of them like a bottle- 
bellied spider in the midst of its web; and when these clouds broke, 
woe betide the valleys ! 

In old times, say the Indian traditions, there was a kind of 
Manitou or Spirit, who kept about the wildest recesses of the 
Catskill Mountains, and took a mischievous pleasure in wreaking 
all kinds of evils and vexations upon the red men. Sometimes he 
would assume the form of a bear, a panther, or a deer, lead the 
bewildered hunter a weary chase through tangled forests and 
among ragged rocks; and then spring off with a loud ho! ho! 
leaving him aghast on the brink of a beetling precipice or raging 
torrent. 



60 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

The favorite abode of this Manitou is still shown. It is a great 
rock or cliff on the loneliest part of the mountains, and, from the 
flowering vines which clamber about it, and the wild flowers 
which abomid in its neighborhood, is known by the name of the 
Garden Rock. Near the foot of it is a small lake, the haunt of 
the solitary bittern, with watersnakes basking in the sun, on the 
leaves of the pond-lilies which lie on the surface. This place was 
held in great awe by the Indians, insomuch that the boldest 
hunter would not pursue his game within its precincts. Once 
upon a time, however, a hunter who had lost his way penetrated 
to the Garden Rock, where he beheld a number of gourds placed 
in the crotches of trees. One of these he seized and made ofif 
with it, but in the hurry of his retreat he let it fall among the 
rocks, when a great stream gushed forth, which washed him away 
and swept him down precipices, where he was dashed to pieces, 
and the stream made its way to the Hudson, and continues to 
flow to the present day; being the identical stream known by 
the name of the Kaaters-kill. 



SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON RIP VAN WINKLE 

1. What is the general character of this sketch? 

2. Compare the schoolmaster, Derrick Van Brummel, with 
Ichabod Crane. 

3. What is meant by a "torrent of household eloquence"? 

4. Was Rip's labor profitable? Why not? 

5. Name several defects in Rip's character. 

6. Has the story a moral? If so, what is it? 

7. Characterize Rip's wife. 

8. Explain the following sentence: "The blue tints of the up- 
land melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape." 

9. Explain the following sentence: "A tart temper never 
mellows with age and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that 
grows keener with constant use." 

10. Narrate the story of Rip from the time he left the village 
until his return. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 



(FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIED- 
RICH KNICKERBOCKER.) 

A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, 
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye; 
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, 
Forever flushing round a summer sky. 

Castle of Indolence. 

In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which 
indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad 
expansion of the river denominated by the ancient 
Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they 
always prudently shortened sail, and implored the pro- 
tection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a 

Castle of Indolence: A celebrated poem published in 1748 
by James Thomson, who also wrote The Seasons. 

Tappan Zee (sea) : An expansion of the Hudson River in the 
vicinity of Tarrytown, New York; length, about 12 miles; great- 
est width, about 4 miles. 

St. Nicholas: The original St. Nicholas was bishop of Myra 
in Lycia, who lived about 300 a. d. On a voyage to Palestine, 
it is said, a sailor was drowned, and St. Nicholas restored him to 
life. He is the patron saint of sailors, travelers, merchants, and 
children; reverenced by the Dutch under the name of Santa Claus. 

61 



62 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

small market town or rural port, which by some is, 
called Clreenbiirgh, but which is more generally and 
properly known l)y the name of Tarry Town. This 
name was given it, we are told, in former days, by the 
good house-wives of the adjacent country, from the 
inveterate propensity of their husbands to hnger about 
the village tavern on market days. Be that as it may, 
I do not vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it, for 
the sake of being precise and authentic. Not far from 
this village, perhaps about three miles, there is a Uttle 
valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is 
one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small 
brook glides through it, with just murmur enought to 
lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail, 
or tapping of a woodpecker, is almost the only sound 
that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity. 

I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in 
squirrel-shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees 
that shades one side of the valley. I had wandered 
into it at noon-time, when all nature is peculiarly quiet, 

St. Nicholas is very often alluded to in Irving's History of New 
York (Book II, Chapters ii and v; Book VI, Chapters iv, viii, 
and ix). 

Tarry Town: A village in Westchester County, New York, 
situated on the Tappan Zee, 24 miles north of New York City. 
It was the scene of Andre's capture in 1780 and is the burial- 
place of Washington Irving. 

Why is nature "peculiarly quiet at noon-time"? What was 
the peculiar character of the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow? 
What is meant by a "continual reverie"? To what kinds of 
"marvellous beliefs" were the inhabitants given? 



64 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

and was startled by the roar of my own gun, as it broke 
the sabbath stillness around, and was prolonged and 
reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I should 
wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world 
and its distractions, and dream quietly away the rem- 
nant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising 
than this little valley. 

From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar 
character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from 
the original Dutch settlers, this sequestrated glen has 
long been known by the name of Sleepy Hollow, and 
its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys 
throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, 
dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to 
pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the 
place was bewitched by a high German doctor, during 
the early days of the settlement; others, that an old 
Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held 
his pow-wows there before the country was discovered 



Reverberated: Driven back, returned. 

If ever I SHOULD WISH FOR A RETREAT, ETC. I This wish of 

Irving was literally gratified when he became owner of Sunnyside. 
His home at Irvington was built in the seventeenth century and 
was originally known as ''Wolfert's Roost." 

The "Dutch" are low German who lived down near the sea; 
those who lived near the mountains are called high German. 

Pow-wow : A dance, feast, or other public celebration prelim- 
inary to a grand hunt, a council, a war-like expedition; a meeting 
where there is more noise than deliberation. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW ■ 66 

by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is the place 
still continues under the sway of some witching power, 
that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, 
causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are 
given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs; are subject to 
trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, 
and hear music and voices in the air. The whole 
neighborhood, abounds with local tales, haunted spots, 
and twilight superstitions; stars shoot and meteors 
glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of 
the country, and the night-mare, with her whole nine 
fold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols. 
The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this 

Hendrick Hudson: A noted English navigator, after whom 
Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, and the Hudson River were named. 
He discovered the river which bears his name on his third voyage, 
while seeking a northwest passage to India. 

Night-mare : An oppressed state during sleep accompanied by 
a feeling of fear or inability to escape from some threatened 
danger. 

"Saint Withold footed thrice the wold; 
He met the nightmare and her nine fold. 
Bid her alight, 
And her troth plight, 
And, Aroint thee, aroint thee." — King Lear, Act III, Sc. 4. 

What is an "enchanted region"? What is an "apparition"? 
What is meant by "floating facts"? What is a "superstition"? 
Explain: "region of shadows"; "visionary propensity"; "uncon- 
sciously imbibed " ; " the witching influence " ; " powers of the air." 

Dominant: Exercising chief authority. 



66 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief 
of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a 
figure on horseback without a head. It is said by 
some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head 
had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some name- 
less battle during the revolutionary war, and who is 
ever and anon seen by the country folk, hurrying along 
in the gloom of night, as if on the wings of the wind. 
His haunts are not confined to the valley, but extend at 
times to the adjacent roads, and especially to the 
vicinity of a church that is at no great distance. In- 
deed, certain of the most authentic historians of those 
parts, who have been careful in collecting and collating 
the floating facts concerning this spectre, allege, that the 
body of the trooper having been in the churchyard, the 
ghost rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest 
of his head, and that the rushing speed with which he 
sometimes passes along the hollow, like a midnight 
blast, is owing to his being belated, and in a hurry to get 
back to the churchyard before daybreak. 

Enchanted: Held as by a spell. 

Hessian: In 1776 the British Government hired of German 
petty princes about 20,000 troops, for the services of which 
England paid $9,000,000. They were called Hessians from the 
fact that 17,000 of them were hired from the Landgrave of 
Hesse-Cassel. 

Collating: Bringing together and comparing; noting points 
of agreement and disagreement; applied particularly to manu- 
scripts and books. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 67 

Such is the general purport of this legendary super- 
stition, which has furnished materials for many a wild 
story in that region of shadows; and the spectre is 
known at all the country firesides, by the name of The 
Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. 

It is remarkable, that the visionary propensity I 
have mentioned is not confined to the native inhabit- 
ants of the valley, but is unconsciously imbibed by 
everyone who resides there for a time. However wide 
awake they may have been before they entered that 
sleepy region, they are sure, in a little time, to inhale 
the witching influence of the air, and begin to grow 
imaginative — to dream dreams, and see appari- 
tions. 

I mention this peaceful spot with all possible laud; 
for it is in such little retired Dutch valleys, found here 
and there embosomed in the great State of New- York, 
that population, manners, and customs remain fixed, 
while the great torrent of migration and improvement, 
which is making such incessant changes in other parts 
of this restless country, sweeps by them unobserved. 
They are like those little nooks of still water, which 
border a rapid stream, where we may see the straw and 
bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving in 
their mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the 
passing current. Though many years have elapsed 
since I trod the drowsy shades of Sleepy Hollow, yet 
I question whether I should not still find the same trees 

Laud: Praise. 



68 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

and the sarrte families vegetating in its sheltered 
bosom. 

In this by-place of nature there abode, in a remote 
period of American history, that is to say, some thirty 
years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod 
Crane, who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, '' tarried," 
in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of instructing the 
children of the vicinity. He was a native of Connecti- 
cut, a State which supplies the Union with pioneers for 
the mind as well as for the forest, and sends forth 
yearly its legions of frontier woodmen and country 
schoolmasters. The cognomen of Crane was not in- 
applicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly 
lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands 
that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might 
have served for shovels, and his whole frame most 
loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat 

Vegetating: Living like vegetables, i. e., to have a mere 
inactive physical existence. 

Mr. Irving first heard of the story of the Headless Horseman 
from his brother-in-law, Mr. Van Wart, in Birmingham, at the 
time of his visit to England in 1819, The two homesick friends 
fell to talking about old times and scenes, and among the stories 
that Mr, Van Wart recalled was this one, which so tickled Ir- 
ving's fancy that he sat down at once and rapidly sketched the 
outline of his story, which he afterward finished in London and 
sent home to America, as the sixth number of The Sketch-Book. 

Wight: A person, creature, thing; an uncanny person. — Clar- 
ence Cook, 

Explain the following terms: "sojourned"; "tarried"; "cog- 
nomen"; "genius of famine." What is a "scarecrow"? 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 69 

at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a 
long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock 
perched upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the 
wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a 
hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and 
fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for 
the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or 
some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield. 

His school-house was a low building of one large room, 
rudely constructed of logs; the windows partly glazed, 
and partly patched with leaves of copy-books. It was 
most ingeniously secured at vacant hours, by a withe 
twisted in the handle of the door, and stakes set against 
the window shutters; so that though a thief might get 
in with perfect ease, he would find some embarrassment 
in getting out ; — an idea most probably borrowed by the 
architect, Yost Van Houten, from the mystery of an 
eel-pot. The school-house stood in a rather lonely but 
pleasant situation, just at the foot of a woody hill, with 
a brook running close by, and a formidable birch-tree 
growing at one end of it. From hence the low murmur 
of his pupils' voices, conning over their lessons, might 
be heard of a drowsy summer's day, like the hum of a 
beehive; interrupted now and then by the authoritative 

Snipe Nose: A nose like the bill of the bird called the snipe, 
which is sometimes one-quarter the length of its whole body. 

Withe: A tough flexible twig, especially of willow, used for 
binding things together. 

Eel-pot: A kind of basket for catching eels, so constructed 
that the eels can easily force their way in, but cannot get out. 



70 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

voice of the master, in the tone of menace or command; 
or, peradventure, by the appalHng sound of the birch, 
as he urged some tardy loiterer along the flowery path 
of knowledge. Truth to say, he was a conscientious 
man, that ever bore in mind the golden maxim, " spare 
the rod and spoil the child." — Ichabod Crane's 
scholars certainly were not spoiled. 

I would not have it imagined, however, that he was 
one of those cruel potentates of the school, who joy in 
the smart of their subjects; on the contrary, he ad- 
ministered justice with discrimination rather than 
severity; taking the burden off the backs of the weak, 
and laying it on those of the strong. Your mere puny 
stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the rod, 
was passed by with indulgence; but the claims of 
justice were satisfied by inflicting a double portion on 
some little, tough, wrong-headed, broad-skirted Dutch 
urchin, who sulked and swelled and grew dogged and 
sullen beneath the birch. All this he called '' doing 
his duty by their parents"; and he never inflicted a 
chastisement without following it by the assurance, so 
consolatory to the smarting urchin, that '' he would 

Winced: Made a sudden shrinking movement. 

Urchin: A mischievous boy. 

What is meant by the following expressions: ''appalUng sound 
of the birch"? "urged some tardy loiterer along the flowery path 
of knowledge"? "one of those cruel potentates of the school"? 
"administered justice with discrimination"? "like the hum of a 
beehive"? "a formidable birch-triee"? "doing his duty by their 
parents"? "so consolatory to the smarting urchin"? 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 71 

remember it and thank him for it the longest day he 
had to Hve." 

When school hours were over, he was even the com- 
panion and playmate of the larger boys; and on holiday 
afternoons would convoy some of the smaller ones home, 
who happened to have pretty sisters, or good house- 
wives for mothers, noted for the comforts of the cup- 
board. Indeed, it behooved him to keep on good terms 
with his pupils. The revenue arising from his school 
was small, and would have been scarcely sufficient to 
furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge feeder, 
and though lank, had the dilating powers of an ana- 
conda; but to help out his maintenance, he was, accord- 
ing to country custom in those parts, boarded and 
lodged at the houses of the farmers, whose children 
he instructed. With these he lived successively a week 
at a time, thus going the round of the neighborhood, 
with all his worldly effects tied up in a cotton hand- 
kerchief. 

That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of 
his rustic patrons, who are apt to consider the costs of 
schooling a grievous burden, and schoolmasters as 
mere drones, he had various ways of rendering himself 
both useful and agreeable. He assisted the farmers 
occasionally in the lighter labors of their farms; helped 
to make hay; mended the fences; took the horses to 



Anaconda : The anaconda possesses great constricting powers, 
the larger specimens being able to crush and swallow large 
animals. 



72 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

water; drove the cows from pasture; and cut wood for 
the winter fire. He laid aside, too, all the dominant 
dignity and absolute sway, with which he lorded it in 
his little empire, the school, and became wonderfully 
gentle and ingratiating. He found favor in the eyes 
of the mothers by petting the children, particularly 
the youngest; and like the lion bold, which whilome so 
magnanimously the lamb did hold, he would sit with a 
child on one knee, and rock a cradle with his foot for 
whole hours together. 

In addition to his other vocations, he was the singing- 
master of the neighborhood, and picked up many 
bright shillings by instructing the young folks in 
psalmody. It was a matter of no little vanity to him 
on Sundays, to take his station in front of the church 
gallery, with a band of chosen singers; where, in his own 
mind, he completely carried away the palm from the 
parson. Certain it is, his voice resounded far above all 

The lion bold: This refers to the famous old New England 
Primer, which has an illuminated alphabet. At the letter L it 
has this rude couplet: 

"The lion bold 
The lamb doth hold." 

Whilome: Formerly, once upon a time. 

Magnanimously: Like a great soul. 

Vocations: Calling, business, trade, occupation. 

Psalmody : Psalm-singing. 

Carried away the palm: A branch of the palm tree v/as 
borne or worn by the ancients as a symbol of triumph. This ex- 
pression means that Ichabod surpassed the parson in excellence. 



74 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

the rest of the congregation, and there are pecuHar 
quavers still to be heard in that church, and which may 
even be heard half a mile ofT, quite to the opposite side 
of the mill-pond, on a still Sunday morning, which are 
said to be legitimately descended from the nose of 
Ichabod Crane. Thus, by divers little make-shifts, in 
that ingenious way which is commonly denominated 
" by hook and by crook," the worthy pedagogue got 
on tolerably enough, and was thought, by all who 
understood nothing of the labor of head-work, to have a 
wonderful easy life of it. 

The schoolmaster is generally a man of some import- 
ance in the female circle of a rural neighborhood; being 
considered a kind of idle gentleman-like personage, of 
vastly superior taste and accomplishments to the rough 
country swains, and, indeed, inferior in learning only 
to the parson. His appearance, therefore, is apt to 
occasion some little stir at the tea-table of a farm-house. 

Quavers: To sing in an artless manner or with a shaking or 
tremulous tone. 

By hook and by crook: By direct or indirect means. 

The old Dutch church is a small building with rough sides of 
the country stone, surmounted by a picturesque roof and with an 
open bell-turret, over which still veers the vane pierced with the 
initials of Vrederick Felypsen, who built the church and endowed 
it in 1699. The church is seldom used except in the summer time. 
On communion Sundays the handsome seventeenth century 
Jacobean table of oak brought from Holland is set out with the 
plain vessels of silver presented by Queen Anne. 

What is meant by "head-work"? What is a "pedagogue"? 
Explain "country swains." 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 75 

and the addition of a supernunKTary dish of cakes or 
sweetmeats, or, peradventure, the parade of a silver 
tea-pot. Our man of letters, therefore, was peculiarly 
happy in the smiles of all the country damsels. How he 
would figure among them in the churchyard between 
services on Sundays! gathering grapes for them from 
the wild vines that overrun the surrounding trees; 
reciting for their amusement all the epitaphs on the 
tombstones; or sauntering, with a whole bevy of them 
along the banks of the adjacent mill-pond; while the 
most bashful country bumpkins hung sheepishly back, 
envying his superior elegance and address. 

From his half itinerant life, also, he was a kind of 
travelling gazette, carrying the whole budget of local 
gossip from house to house; so that his appearance was 
always greeted with satisfaction. He was, moreover, 
esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, 
for he had read several books quite through, and was a 
perfect master of Cotton Mather's History of New 

Cotton Mather: The son of Increase Mather, was born in 
Boston in 1663, and was graduated from Harvard before he 
was sixteen years old. He died in 1728. He was active in urging 
the witchcraft persecutions. He wrote much against intemper- 
ance and in every way aimed at being useful to society. He was 
one of the most learned men in America at the time in which 
he lived. His own publications numbered 382. 

Explain " supernumerary ";" the parade of a silver tea-pot"; 
"our man of letters"; "how he would figure among them"; 
What is an "epitaph"? What is a "country bumpkin"? In 
what way was Ichabod a "travelling gazette"? What is meant 
by a "man of great erudition"? 



76 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

England Witchcraft, in which, by the way, he most 
firmly and potently believed. 

He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness 
and simple credulity. His appetite for the marvellous, 
and his powers of digesting it, were equally extra- 
ordinary; and both had been increased by his residence 
in this spell-bound region. No tale was too gross or 
monstrous for his capacious swallow. It was often his 
delight, after his school was dismissed in the afternoon, 
to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover, bordering 
the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, 
and there con over old Mather's direful tales, until the 
gathering dusk of evening made the printed page a mere 
mist before his eyes. Then, as he wended his way, by 
swamp and stream and awful woodland, to the farm- 
house where he happened to be quartered, every sound 
of nature, at that witching hour, fluttered his excited 
imagination : the moan of the whip-poor-will from the 
hill-side; the boding cry of the tree-toad, that harbinger 
of storm ; the dreary hooting of the screech-owl ; or the 
sudden rustling in the thicket, of birds frightened 
from their roost. The fire-flies, too, which sparkled 
most vividly in the darkest places, now and then 
startled him, as one of uncommon brightness would 



Whip-poor-will: This is a bird that is only heard after sun- 
down. It receives its name from the fact that its note is thought 
to resemble those words. 

What is meant by a" simple credulity"? "capacious swallow"? 
"harbinger of storm"? 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 77 

stream across his path; and if, by chance, a huge block- 
head of a beetle came winging his blundering flight 
against him, the poor varlet was ready to give up the 
ghost, with the idea that he was struck with a witch's 
token. His only resource on such occasions, either to 
drown thought, or drive away evil spirits, was to sing 
psalm tunes; — and the good people of Sleepy Hollow, as 
they sat by their doors of an evening, were often filled 
with awe, at hearing his nasal melody, '^ in linked 
sweetness long drawn out," floating from the distant 
hill, or along the dusky road. 

Another of his sources of fearful pleasure was, to pass 
long winter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they 
sat spinning by the fire, with a row of apples roasting 
and sputtering along the hearth, and listen to their 
marvellous tales of ghosts, and goblins, and haunted 
fields and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges and 
haunted houses, and particularly of the headless 
horseman, or galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as they 
sometimes called him. He would delight them equally 
by his anecdotes of witchcraft, and of the direful 
omens and portentous sights and sounds in the air, 
which prevailed in the earlier times of Connecticut; and 

Linked sweetness long drawn out: See in Milton's U Allegro 
the line — 

"Of linked sweetness long drawn out." 

Why does the author call the beetle a "blockhead"? What 
is a "varlet"? a "ghost"? a "witch's token"? What is 
meant by "nasal melody"? What are "direful omens"? "por- 
tentous sights"? 



78 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

would frighten them wofully with speculations upon 
comets and shooting stars, and with the alarming fact 
that the world did absolutely turn round, and that they 
were half the time topsy-turvy! 

But if there was a pleasure in all this, while snugly 
cuddling in the chimney corner of a chamber that was 
all of a ruddy glow from the crackling wood fire, and 
where, of course, no spectre dared to show its face, it 
was dearly purchased by the terrors of his subsequent 
walk homewards. What fearful shapes and shadows 
beset his path, amidst the dim and ghastly glare of a 
snowy night! — With what wistful look did he eye every 
trembling ray of light streaming across the waste fields 
from some distant window! — How often was he appalled 
by some shrub covered with snow, which like a sheeted 
spectre beset his very path! — How often did he shrink 
with curdling awe at the sound of his own steps on the 
frosty crust beneath his feet; and dread to look over 
his shoulder, lest he should behold some uncouth being 
tramping close behind him! — and how often was he 
thrown into complete dismay by some rushing blast, 
howling among the trees, in the idea that it was the 
galloping Hessian on one of his nightly scourings! 

All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, 
phantoms of the mind, that walk in darkness: and 
though he had seen many spectres in his time^ and been 

Topsy-turvy: Upside down. 

What is meant by "sheeted spectre"? "curdling awe"? 
"uncouth being"? "phantoms of the mind"? 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 79 

more than once beset by Satan in divers shapes, in 
his lonely perambulations, yet daylight put an end to 
all these evils; and he would have passed a pleasant 
life of it, in despite of the Devil and all his works, if 
his path had not been crossed by a being that causes 
more perplexity to mortal man, than ghosts, goblins, 
and the whole race of witches put together; and that 
was — a woman. 

Among the musical disciples who assembled, one 
evening in each week, to receive his instructions in 
psalmody, was Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and 
only child of a substantial Dutch farmer. She was a 
blooming lass of fresh eighteen; plump as a partridge; 
ripe and melting and rosy-cheeked as one of her father's 
peaches, and universally famed, not merely for her 
beauty, but her vast expectations. She was withal a 
little of a coquette, as might be perceived even in her 
dress, which was a mixture of ancient and modern 
fashions, as most suited to set ofT her charms. She 
wore the ornaments of pure yellow gold, which her 
great-great-grandmother had brought over from Saar- 
dam, the tempting stomacher of the olden time, and 

Perambulations: Walking about, strolling. 

Saardam : A town in Holland, 5 miles northwest from Amster- 
dam. Peter the Great worked here as a ship's carpenter. 

Stomacher : A part of the dress covering the front of the body, 
generally forming the lower part of the bodice in front and usually 
projecting down into the skirt or lapping over it. — Century Dic- 
tionary. 

What is meant by ''plump as a partridge"? a "blooming 
lass"? a "coquette"? 



80 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

withal a provokingly short petticoat, to display the 
prettiest foot and ankle in the country round. 

Ichabod Crane had a soft and foolish heart towards 
the sex; and it is not to be wondered at, that so tempting 
a morsel soon found favor in his eyes, more especially 
after he had visited her in her paternal mansion. Old 
Baltus Van Tassel was a perfect picture of a thriving, 
contented, liberal-hearted farmer. He seldom, it is 
true, sent either his eyes or his thoughts beyond the 
boundaries of his own farm; but within these, every- 
thing was snug, happy and well-conditioned. He 
was satisfied with his wealth, but not proud of it; and 
piqued himself upon the hearty abundance, rather 
than the style in which he lived. His stronghold was 
situated on the banks of the Hudson, in one of those 
green, sheltered, fertile nooks, in which the Dutch 
farmers are so fond of nestling. A great elm-tree spread 
its broad branches over it; at the foot of which bubbled 
up a spring of the softest and sweetest water, in a little 
well, formed of a barrel; and then stole sparkling away 
through the grass, to a neighboring brook, that babbled 
along among alders and dwarf willows. Hard by the 
farm-house was a vast barn, that might have served 
for a church; every window and crevice of which seemed 
bursting forth with the treasures of the farm; the flail 
was busily resounding within it from morning to night ; 

Piqued: Prided or valued. 

What is meant by "so tempting a morsel"? Define the 
following words: "stronghold"; "nestling"; "babbled." 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 81 

swallows and martins skimmed twittering a])out the 
eaves; and rows of pigeons, some with one eye turned 
up, as if watching the weather, some with their heads 
under their wings, or buried in their bosoms, and others, 
swelling, and cooing, and bowing about their dames, 
were enjoying the sunshine on the roof. Sleek un- 
wieldly porkers were grunting in the repose and abun- 
dance of their pens, from whence sallied forth, now and 
then, troops of sucking pigs, as if to snuff the air. A 
stately squadron of snowy geese were riding in an ad- 
joining pond, convoying whole fleets of ducks; regiments 
of turkeys were gobbling through the farm-yard, and 
guinea-fowls fretting about it like ill-tempered house- 
wives, with their peevish, discontented cry. Before 
the barn door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern 
of a husband, a warrior, and a fine gentleman; clapping 
his burnished wings and crowing in the pride and glad- 
ness of his heart — sometimes tearing up the earth with 
his feet, and then generously calling his ever-hungry 
family of wives and children to enjoy the rich morsel 
which he had discovered. 

The pedagogue's mouth watered, as he looked upon 
this sumptuous promise of luxurious winter fare. In 
his devouring mind's eye, he pictured to himself every 
roasting pig running about, with a pudding in its belly, 

Convoying: To accompany on the way for protection, either 
by sea or land. 

Define the following words : ''skimmed"; "porkers"; ''rich 
morsel"; "sumptuous"; "luxurious"; "mind's eye." 



82 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

and an apple in its mouth; the pigeons were snugly 
put to bed in a comfortable pie, and tucked in with a 
coverlet of crust; the geese were swimming in their own 
gravy; and the ducks pairing cosily in dishes, like snug 
married couples, with a decent competency of onion 
sauce. In the porkers he saw carved out the future 
sleek side of bacon, and juicy relishing ham; not a 
turkey, but he beheld daintily trussed up, with its 
gizzard under its wing, and, peradventure, a necklace 
of savory sausages; and even bright chanticleer himself 
lay sprawling on his back, in a side dish, with uplifted 
claws, as if, craving that quarter which his chivalrous 
spirit disdained to ask while living. 

As the enraptured Ichabod fancied all this, and as he 
rolled his great green eyes over the fat meadow lands, 
the rich fields of wheat, of rye, of buckwheat, and 
Indian corn, and the orchards burdened with ruddy 
fruit, which surrounded the warm tenement of Van 
Tassel, his heart yearned after the damsel who was to 
inherit these domains, and his imagination expanded 
with the idea, how they might be readily turned into 
cash, and the money invested in immense tracts of 
wild land, and shingle palaces in the wilderness. Nay, 
his busy fancy already realized his hopes, and pre- 
sented to him the blooming Katrina, with a whole fam- 

Explain the following expressions: "snugly put to bed in a 
comfortable pie"; "geese swimming in their own gravy"; "ducks 
pairing cosily in dishes"; "decent competency of onion sauce"; 
"bright chanticleer"; "chivalrous spirit"; "enraptured Icha- 
bod"; "fat meadow lands"; "shingle palaces." 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 83 

ily of children mounted on the top of a wagon loaded 
with household trumpery, with pots and kettles 
dangling beneath; and he beheld himself bestriding a 
pacing mare, with a colt at her heels, setting out for 
Kentucky, Tennessee — or the Lord knows where! 

When he entered the house, the conquest of his 
heart was complete. It was one of those spacious farm- 
houses, with high-ridged, but lowly-sloping roofs, built 
in the style handed down from the first Dutch settlers. 
The low projecting eaves forming a piazza along the 
front, capable of being closed up in bad weather. 
Under this were hung flails, harness, various utensils 
of husbandry, and nets for fishing in the neighboring 
river. Benches were built along the sides for summer 
use; and a great spinning-wheel at one end, and a churn 
at the other, showed the various uses to which this 
important porch might be devoted. From this piazza 
the wondering Ichabod entered the hall, which formed 
the centre of the mansion, and the place of usual 
residence. Here, rows of resplendent pewter, ranged on 
a long dresser, dazzled his eyes. In one corner stood 
a huge bag of wool, ready to be spun; in another, a 

Setting out for Kentucky: When this sketch was written 
Kentucky was the objective point of emigration. Ichabod, un- 
like the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow, was not content to stay 
long in one place. 

Pewter: An alloy, usually consisting of tin and lead. 

Explain the following expression: "household trumpery." 
What is meant by "utensils of husbandry"? "resplendent 
pewter"? 



84 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

quantity of linsey-woolsey just from the loom; ears 
of Indian corn, and strings of dried apples and peaches, 
hung in gay festoons along the walls, mingled with the 
gaud of red peppers; and a door left ajar, gave him 
a peep into the best parlor, where the claw-footed 
chairs, and dark mahogany tables, shone like mirrors; 
andirons, with their accompanying shovel and tongs, 
glistened from their covert of asparagus tops; mock- 
oranges and conch shells decorated the mantlepiece; 
strings of various colored birds' eggs were suspended 
above it; a great ostrich egg was hung from the centre 
of the room, and a corner cupboard, knowingly left 
open, displayed immense treasures of old silver and 
well-mended china. 

From the moment Ichabod laid his eyes upon these 
regions of delight, the peace of his mind was at an end, 
and his only study was how to gain the affections of the 
peerless daughter of Van Tassel. In this enterprise, 
however, he had more real difficulties than generally fell 
to the lot of a knight-errant of yore, who seldom had 
anything but giants, enchanters, fiery dragons, and 
such like easily conquered adversaries, to contend with; 
and had to make his way merely through gates of iron 
and brass, and walls of adamant to the castle-keep, 

What is meant by "linsey-woolsey"? "claw-footed chairs"? 
"covert of asparagus tops"? "well-mended china"? "regions of 
delight"? "knight-errant"? "enchanters"? "fiery dragons"? 
"walls of adamant"? "castle-keep"? Which has the greater 
charm for Ichabod, Katrina or the property to which she is the 
heiress? 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 85 

where the lady of his heart was confined; all which he 
achieved as easily as a man would carve his way to 
the centre of a Christmas pie, and then the lady gave 
him her hand as a matter of course. Ichabod, on* 
the contrary, had to win his way to the heart of a 
country coquette, beset with a labyrinth of whims and 
caprices, which were forever presenting new difficulties 
and impediments, and he had to encounter a host of 
fearful adversaries of real flesh and blood, the numerous 
rustic admirers, who beset every portal to her heart; 
keeping a watchful and angry eye upon each other, 
but ready to fly out in the common cause against any 
new competitor. 

Among these, the most formidable was a burly, 
roaring, roystering blade, of the name of Abraham, or 
according to the Dutch abbreviation, Brom Van 
Brunt, the hero of the country round, which rung 
with his feats of strength and hardihood. He was 
broad-shouldered and double-jointed, with short curly 
black hair, and a bluff, but not unpleasant counten- 
ance, having a mingled air of fun and arrogance. 
From his Herculean frame and great powers of limb, 
he had received the nickname of Brom Bones, by which 
he was universally known. He was famed for great 

Explain the following expressions: "a country coquette"; 
"a labyrinth of whims and caprices"; ''fearful adversaries of real 
flesh and blood"; "roystering blade." 

Herculean: Having the size and strength of Hercules. In 
Greek mythology Hercules is worshipped as the god of physical 
strength and courage. 



86 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

knowledge and skill in horsemanship, being as dexter- 
ous on horseback as a Tartar. He was foremost at all 
races and cock-fights, and with the ascendency which' 
bodily strength always acquires in rustic life, was the 
umpire in all disputes, setting his hat on one side, and 
giving his decisions with an air and tone that admitted 
of no gainsay or appeal. He was always ready for 
either a fight or a frolic ; had more mischief than ill-will 
in his composition; and with all his overbearing rough- 
ness, there was a strong dash of waggish good humor 
at bottom. He had three or four boon companions of 
his own stamp, who regarded him as their model, and 
at the head of whom he scoured the country, attending 
every scene of feud or merriment for miles around. 
In cold weather, he was distinguished by a fur cap, 
surmounted with a flaunting fox's tail; and when the 
folks at a country gathering descried this well-known 
crest at a distance, whisking about among a squad 
of hard riders, they always stood by for a squall. 
Sometimes his crew would be heard dashing along past 
the farm-houses at midnight, with whoop and halloo, 

Tartar: A wandering people of Europe noted for their horse- 
manship. 

Umpire: A person selected to see that the rules of a game are 
enforced and to decide disputed points; a third person to whom 
a controversy is submitted for arbitration. 

Explain the following expressions: ''dexterous on horseback"; 
"overbearing roughness"; "dash of waggish good humor"; 
"boon companions." Define the following expression: "well- 
known crest." 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 87 

like a troop of Don Cossacks, and the old dames, 
startled out of their sleep, would listen for a moment 
till the hurry-scurry had clattered by, and then ex- 
claim, " Ay, there goes Brom Bones and his gang!" 
The neighbors looked upon him with a mixture of awe, 
admiration, and good-will; and when any madcap 
prank, or rustic brawl occurred in the vicinity, always 
shook their heads, and warranted Brom Bones was at 
the bottom of it. 

This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the 
blooming Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallan- 
tries, and though his amorous toyings were something 
like the gentle caresses and endearments of a bear, 
yet it was whispered that she did not altogether dis- 
courage his hopes. Certain it is, his advances were 
signals for rival candidates to retire, who felt no in- 
clination to cross a lion in his amours; insomuch, that 
when his horse was seen tied to Van Tassel's palings, on 
a Sunday night, a sure sign that his master was court- 
ing, or, as it is termed, " sparking," within, all other 
suitors passed by in despair, and carried the war into 
other quarters. 

Such was the formidable rival with whom Ichabod 

Don Cossacks: People who live on the river Don, noted as 
skilful horsemen. 

Rantipole: A wild, reckless fellow. 

Define the following expressions: ''madcap prank"; ''the 
blooming Katrina,"; "uncouth gallantries"; "amorous toy- 
ings"; "endearments of a bear"; "sparking"; "formidable 
rival." 



88 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

Crane had to contend, and considering all things, a 
stouter man than he would have shrunk from the com- 
petition, and a wiser man would have despaired. He' 
had, however, a happy mixture of pliability and per- 
severance in his nature; he was in form and spirit like 
a supple-jack — yielding, but tough; though he bent, 
he never broke; and though he bowed beneath the 
slightest pressure, yet, the moment it was away — jerk! 
— he was as erect, and carried his head as high as ever. 
To have taken the field openly against his rival, 
would have been madness; for he was not a man to be 
thwarted in his amours, any more than that stormy 
lover, Achilles. Ichabod, therefore, made his advances 
in a quiet and gently-insinuating manner. Under cover 
of his character of singing-master, he made frequent 
visits at the farm-house; not that he had anything to 
apprehend from the meddlesome interference of parents, 
which is so often a stumbling-block in .the path of 
lovers. Bait Van Tassel was an easy indulgent soul; 
he loved his daughter better even than his pipe, and 

Supple-jack: A strong, pliant cane; a name of a vine which 
grows in the South, some of them furnishing walking-sticks. 

Achilles: Son of Peleus and Thetis, was the great hero of the 
Greeks in the Trojan War, who brought trouble upon his country- 
men during the Siege of Troy because the captive maiden Briseis 
was given to Agamemnon instead of to him. 

Define the following expressions: ''pliability and perseverance 
in his nature"; "yielding, but tough." What is meant by 
*'* thwarted in his amours"? "in a gently-insinuating manner"? 
"meddlesome interference of parents"? 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 89 

like a reasonable man, and an excellent father, let her 
have her way in everything. His notable little wife, 
too, had enough to do to attend to her housekeeping 
and manage the poultry; for, as she sagely observed, 
ducks and geese are foolish things, and must be looked 
after, but girls can take care of themselves. Thus, 
while the busy dame bustled about the house, or plied 
her spinning-wheel at one end of the piazza, honest 
Bait would sit smoking his evening pipe at the other, 
watching the achievements of a little wooden warrior, 
who, armed with a sword in each hand, was most 
valiantly fighting the wind on the pinnacle of the barn. 
In the mean time, Ichabod would carry on his suit with 
the daughter by the side of the spring under the great 
elm, or sauntering along in the twilight, that hour so 
favorable to the lover's eloquence. 

I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed 
and won. To me they have always been matters of 
riddle and admiration. Some seem to have but one 
vulnerable point, or door of access; while others have a 
thousand avenues, and may be captured in a thousand 
different ways. It is a great triumph of skill to gain 
the former, but a still greater proof of generalship to 
maintain possession of the latter, for a man must battle 
for his fortress at every door and window. He that 
wins a thousand common hearts, is therefore entitled 
to some renown; but he who keeps undisputed sway 



What is meant by "sagely observed"? "vulnerable point"' 
"door of access"? 



90 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

over the heart of a coquette, is indeed a hero. Certain 
it is, this was not the case with the redoubtable Brom 
Bones; and from the moment Ichabod Crane maSe 
his advances, the interests of the former evidently 
declined: his horse was no longer seen tied at the 
palings on Sunday nights, and a deadly feud gradually 
arose between him and the preceptor of Sleepy Hollow. 
Brom, who had a degree of rough chivalry in his 
nature, would fain have carried matters to open war- 
fare, and settled their pretensions to the lady, accord- 
ing to the mode of those most concise and simple 
reasoners, the knights-errant of yore — by single com- 
bat; but Ichabod was too conscious of the superior 
might of his adversary to enter the lists against him; 
he had overheard the boast of Bones, that he would 
" double the schoolmaster up, and put him on a shelf "; 
and he was too wary to give him an opportunity. 
There was something extremely provoking in this 
obstinately pacific system; it left Brom no alternative 
but to draw upon the funds of rustic waggery in his 
disposition, and to play off boorish practical jokes 
upon his rival. Ichabod became the object of whim- 
sical persecution to Bones, and his gang of rough riders. 
They harried his hitherto peaceful domains; smoked 

Preceptor: A teacher, instructor. 

Explain the following expressions: "deadly feud"; ''rough 
chivalry"; "knights-errant of yore"; "double the schoolmaster 
up and put him on a shelf"; "pacific system"; "rustic waggery"; 
"whimsical persecution." 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 91 

out his singing-school, by stopping up the chimney; 
broke into the school-house at night, in spite of its 
formidable fastenings of withe and window stakes, 
and turned everything topsy-turvy; so that the poor 
schoolmaster began to think all the witches in the 
country held their meetings there. But what was still 
more annoying, Brom took all opportunities of turning 
him into ridicule in presence of his mistress, and had a 
scoundrel dog whom he taught to whine in the most 
ludicrous manner, and introduced as a rival of Icha- 
bod's, to instruct her in psalmody. 

In this way, matters went on for some time, without 
producing any material effect on the relative situations 
of the contending powers. On a fine autumnal after- 
noon, Ichabod, in pensive mood, sat enthroned on 
the lofty stool from whence he usually watched all the 
concerns of his literary realm. In his hand he swayed 
a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power, the birch of 
justice reposed on three nails, behind the throne, a 
constant terror to evil doers; while on the desk before 
him might be seen sundry contraband articles and pro- 
hibited weapons, detected upon the persons of idle 



Ferule : A cane, rod, or fiat piece of wood, as a ruler, used for 
the punishment of children in schools by striking some part of the 
body, particularly the palm of the hand. — Century Dictionary. 

Explain the following expressions: "pensive mood"; "his 
Hterary realm"; "that sceptre of despotic power"; "birch of 
justice"; "behind the throne"; "contrabrand articles"; "pro- 
hibited weapons." 



92 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

urchins; such as half-munched apples, popguns, 
whirligigs, fly-cages, and whole legions of rampant 
little paper game-cocks. Apparently there had been 
some appalling act of justice recently inflicted, for his 
scholars were all busily intent upon their books, or slyly 
whispering behind them with one eye kept upon the 
master; and a kind of buzzing stillness reigned through- 
out the school-room. It was suddenly interrupted by 
the appearance of a negro in tow-cloth jacket and 
trousers, a round crowned fragment of a hat, like the 
cap of Mercury and mounted on the back of a ragged, 
wild, half-broken colt, which he managed with a rope 
by way of halter. He came clattering up to the school- 
door with an invitation to Ichabod to attend a merry- 
making, or '' quilting-frolic," to be held that evening 
at Mynheer Van Tassel's; and having delivered his 
message with that air of importance, and effort at fine 
language, which a negro is apt to display on petty em- 



Mercury: a Roman divinity, who is represented in art as a 
young man wearing a winged hat. 

"QuiLTiNG-FROLic" (quilting bee): A meeting of women for the 
purpose of assisting one of their number in quilting a counterpane; 
usually followed by a supper or other entertainment to which 
men are invited. "Now (in the days of Peter Stuyvesant) were 
instituted quilting bees . . . and other rural assemblages where, 
under the inspiring influence of the fiddle, toil was enlivened by 
gayety and followed up by the dance." — Irving, Knickerbocker, 
p. 405. 

Explain the following: "petty embassies." 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 93 

bassies of the kind, he dashed over the brook, and was 
seen scampering away up the Hollow, full of the im- 
portance and hurry of his mission. 

All was now bustle and hubbub in the late quiet 
school-room. The scholars were hurried through 
their lessons, without stopping at trifles; those who 
were nimble, skipped over half with impunity, and 
those who were tardy, had a smart application now and 
then in the rear, to quicken their speed, or help them 
over a tall word. Books were flung aside, without 
being put away on the shelves; inkstands were over- 
turned, benches thrown down, and the whole school 
was turned loose an hour before the usual time; burst- 
ing forth like a legion of young imps, yelping and 
racketing about the green, in joy at their early eman- 
cipation. 

The gallant Ichabod now spent at least an extra 
half-hour at his toilet, brushing and furbishing up his 
best, and indeed only suit of rusty black, and arranging 
his looks by a bit of broken looking-glass, that hung up 
in the school-house. That he might make his appear- 
ance before his mistress in the true style of a cavalier, 
he borrowed a horse from the farmer with whom he 
was domiciliated, a choleric old Dutchman, of the 
name of Hans Van Ripper, and thus gallantly mounted, 

Cavalier: A horse-soldier. 

Explain the following expressions: "their early emancipa- 
tion"; "furbishing up"; "domiciliated"; "choleric old Dutch- 



94 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

issued forth like a knight-errant in quest of adventures 
But it is meet I should, in the true spirit of romantic 
story, give some account of the looks and equipments 
of my hero and his steed. The animal he bestrode was 
a broken-down plough-horse, that had outlived almost 
everything but his viciousness. He was gaunt and 
shagged, with a ewe neck and a head like a hammer; 
his rusty mane and tail were tangled and knotted with 
burrs; one eye had lost its pupil, and was glaring and 
spectral, but the other had the gleam of a genuine devil 
in it. Still he must have had fire and mettle in his day, 
if we may judge from his name, which was Gunpowder. 
He had, in fact, been a favorite steed of his master's, 
the choleric Van Ripper, who was a furious rider, and 
had infused, very probably, some of his own spirit into 
the animal; for, old and broken-down as he looked, there 
was more of the lurking devil in him than in any young 
filly in the country. 

Ichabod was a suitable figure for such a steed. He 
rode with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly 
up to the pommel of the saddle; his sharp elbows stuck 
out like grass-hoppers'; he carried his whip perpen- 
dicularly in his hand, like a sceptre, and as the horse 
jogged on, the motion of his arms was not unlike the 
flapping of a pair of wings. A small wool hat rested 



Knight-errant: A knight who travelled in search of adven- 
tures for the purpose of exhibiting military skill. 

Ewe neck: A thin, hollow neck. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 95 

on the top of his nose, for so his scanty strip of forehead 
niight be called, and the skirts of his black coat fluttered 
out almost to the horse's tail. Such was the appear- 
ance of Ichabod and his steed as they shambled out of 
the gate of Hans Van Ripper, and it was altogether such 
an apparition as is seldom to be met with in broad day- 
light. 

It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day; the sky 
was clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and 
golden livery which we always associate with the idea 
of abundance. The forests had put on their sober 
brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer 
kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant 
dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. Streaming files 
of wild ducks began to make their appearance high 
in the air; the bark of the squirrel might be heard from 
the groves of beech and hickory-nuts, and the pensive 
whistle of the quail at intervals from the neighboring 
stubble field. 

The small birds were taking their farewell banquets. 
In the fulness of their revelry, they fluttered, chirping 
and frolicking, from bush to bush, and tree to tree, 
capricious from the very profusion and variety around 
them. There was the honest cockrobin, the favorite 



Gorget: A piece of armor protecting the throat and upper part 
of the chest. 

Explain the following expressions: "shambled out of the 
gate"; "golden livery"; "pensive whistle of the quail"; "fare- 
well banquets . " Why honest ' ' cockrobin " ? 



96 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

game of stripling sportsmen, with its loud querulous 
note, and the twittering blackbirds flying in sable 
clouds; and the golden-winged woodpecker, with hie 
crimson crest, his broad black gorget, and splendid 
plumage; and the cedar-bird, with its red-tipt wings and 
yellow-tipt tail and its little montero cap of feathers; 
and the blue jay, that noisy coxcomb, in his gay light 
blue coat and white underclothes, screaming and 
chattering, nodding, and bobbing, and bowing, and 
pretending to be on good terms with every songster 
of the grove. 

As Ichabod jogged slowly on his way, his eye, ever 
open to every symptom of culinary abundance, ranged 
with delight over the treasures of jolly autumn. On 
all sides he beheld vast store of apples, some hanging 
in oppressive opulence on the trees; some gathered into 
baskets and barrels for the market; others heaped up 
in rich piles for the cider-press. Farther on he beheld 
great fields of Indian corn, with its golden ears peeping 
from their leafy coverts, and holding out the promise 
of cakes and hasty-pudding; and the yellow pumpkins 
lying beneath them, turning up their fair round bellies 



Montero cap: A round cap with flaps which covered the 
sides of the face. 

Hasty-pudding: A pudding made by dropping meal or flour 
into boiling water, stirring it while cooking. 

Explain the following expressions: "querulous note"; "culi- 
nary abundance"; "oppressive opulence on the trees"; "leafy 
coverts." 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 97 

to the sun, and giving ample prospects of the most 
luxurious of pies; and anon he passed the fragrant 
buckwheat fields breathing the odor of the beehive, 
and as he beheld them, soft anticipations stole over 
his mind of dainty slap-jacks, well-buttered, and 
garnished with honey or treacle, by the delicate little 
dimpled hand of Katrina Van Tassel. 

Thus feeding his mind with many sweet thoughts 
and " sugared suppositions," he journeyed along the 
sides of a range of hills which look out upon some of the 
goodliest scenes of the mighty Hudson. The sun 
gradually wheeled his broad disk down in the west. 
The wide bosom of the Tappan Zee lay motionless 
and glassy, excepting that here and there a gentle 
undulation waved and prolonged the blue shadow of 
the distant mountain. A few amber clouds floated 
in the sky, without a breath of air to move them. The 
horizon was of a fine golden tint, changing gradually 
into a pure apple green, and from that into the deep 
blue of the mid-heaven. A slanting ray lingered on the 
woody crests of the precipices that overhung some 
parts of the river, giving greater depth to the dark 
gray and purple of their rocky sides. A sloop was 
loitering in the distance, dropping slowly down with 
the tide, her sail hanging uselessly against the mast; 
and as the reflection of the sky gleamed along the still 

Treacle : Molasses, sugar syrup. Properly, the syrup obtained 
by refining sugar. 

Explain the following: "sugared suppositions." 



98 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

water, it seemed as if the vessel was suspended in the 
air. 

It was toward evening that Ichabod arrived at th'e 
castle of the Heer Van Tassel, which he found thronged 
with the pride and flower of the adjacent country. Old 
farmers, a spare leathern-faced race, in homespun 
coats and breeches, blue stockings, huge shoes, and 
magnificent pewter buckles. Their brisk, withered 
little dames, in close crimped caps, long waisted gowns, 
homespun petticoats, with scissors and pin-cushions, 
and gay calico pockets, hanging on the outside. 
Buxom lasses, almost as antiquated as their mothers, 
excepting where a straw hat, a fine ribbon, or perhaps 
a white frock, gave symptoms of city innovations. 
The sons, in short square skirted coats, with rows of 
stupendous brass buttons, and their hair generally 
queued in the fashion of the times, especially if they 
could procure an eelskin for the purpose, it being es- 
teemed throughout the country, as a potent nourisher 
and strengthener of the hair. 

Brom Bones, however, was the hero of the scene. 



Pride and flower: the choicest young men and women of the 
vicinity. 

Queued: Braided into a tail, encased in eel-skin. 
Brom: A nickname for Abram. 

Explain the following: "the pride and flower of the adjacent 
country"; "leathern-faced"; "withered little dames." What 
is meant by the following expressions: "buxom lasses"? "city 
innovations"? 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 99 

having come to the gathering on his favorite steed; 
Daredevil, a creature, like himself, full of mettle and 
mischief, and which no one but himself could manage. 
He was, in fact, noted for preferring vicious animals, 
given to all kinds of tricks which kept the rider in 
constant risk of his neck, for he held a tractable well- 
broken horse as unworthy of a lad of spirit. 

Fain would I pause to dwell upon the world of charms 
that burst upon the enraptured gaze of my hero, as he 
entered the state parlor of Van Tassel's mansion. Not 
those of the bevy of buxom lasses, with their luxurious 
display of red and white; but the ample charms of a 
genuine Dutch country tea-table, in the sumptuous 
time of autumn. Such heaped up platters of cakes of 
various and almost indescribable kinds, known only 
to experienced Dutch housewives! There was the 
doughty dough-nut, the tender olykoek, and the crisp 
and crumbling cruller; sweet cakes and short cakes, 
ginger cakes and honey cakes, and the whole family 
of cakes. And then there were apple pies, and peach 
pies, and pumpkin pies; besides shces of ham and 
smoked beef; and moreover delectable dishes of pre- 
served plums, and peaches, and pears, and quinces; 
not to mention broiled shad and roasted chickens; 
together with bowls of milk and cream, all mingled 

Olykoek: A cake fried in lard, such as the cruller and doughnut. 
Delectable: Delightful to the taste. 

What is meant by the following expressions: "enraptured 
gaze"? "sumptuous time of autumn"? 



100 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

higgledy-piggledy, pretty much as I have enumerated 
them, with the motherly tea-pot sending up its clouds 
of vapor from the midst — Heaven bless the mark! •! 
want breath and time to discuss this banquet as it 
deserves, and am too eager to get on with my story. 
Happily, Ichabod Crane was not in so great a hurry 
as his historian, but did ample justice to every 
dainty. 

He was a kind and thankful creature, whose heart 
dilated in proportion as his skin was filled with good 
cheer, and whose spirits rose with eating, as some men's 
do with drink. He could not help, too, rolHng his large 
eyes round him as he ate, and chuckling with the pos- 
sibility that he might one day be lord of all this scene 
of almost unimaginable luxury and splendor. Then, 
he thought, how soon he'd turn his back upon the old 
school-house; snap his fingers in the face of Hans Van 
Ripper, and every other niggardly patron, and kick any 
itinerant pedagogue out of doors that should dare to 
call him comrade! 

Old Baltus Van Tassel moved about among his guests 
with a face dilated with content and good humor, round 

Heaven bless the mark : The expression of an archer who, on 
making a good shot, would exclaim, "God save the mjirk!" 
meaning, ''God prevent atiy one coming after from hitting the 
same mark and displacing my arrow." In this instance it is 
an expression of humorous despair. 

Niggardly: Stingy. 

Itinerant: Journeying from place to place. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 101 

and jolly as the harvest moon. His hospitable atten- 
tions were brief, but expressive, being confined to a 
shake of the hand, a slap on the shoulder, a loud laugh 
and a pressing invitation to '' fall to, and help them- 
selves." 

And now the sound of the music from the common 
room, or hall, summoned to the dance. The musician 
was an old gray-headed negro, who had been the 
itinerant orchestra of the neighborhood for more than 
half a century. His instrument was as old and bat- 
tered as himself. The greater part of the time he 
scraped away on two or three strings, accompanying 
every movement of the bow with a motion of the head ; 
bowing almost to the ground, and stamping with his 
foot whenever a fresh couple were to start. 

Ichabod prided himself upon his dancing as much as 
upon his vocal powers. Not a limb, not a fibre about 
him was idle; and to have seen his loosely hung frame 
in full motion, and clattering about the room, you 
would have thought St. Vitus himself, that blessed 
patron of the dance, was figuring before you in person. 

Harvest moon : The full moon that occurs nearest the autum- 
nal equinox, September 21st. 

St. Vitus: A name given to a nervous disease. St. Vitus was a 
patron saint of dancers and actors. A legend tells that on one 
occasion, when he had been shut up in a dungeon, his father, 
looking through a chink in the door, saw him dancing with sev- 
eral beautiful angels; his father was so dazzled by the sight that 
he became blind and only recovered through his son's inter- 
cession. 



102 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

He was the admiration of all the negroes; who, having 
gathered, of all ages and sizes, from the farm and the 
neighborhood, stood forming a pyramid of shining black 
faces at every door and window; gazing with delight 
at the scene; rolling their white eye-balls, and showing 
grinning rows of ivory from ear to ear. How could the 
flogger of urchins be otherwise than animated and joy- 
ous? the lady of his heart was his partner in the dance, 
and smiling graciously in reply to all his amorous og- 
lings; while Brom Bones, sorely smitten with love and 
jealousy, sat brooding by himself in one corner. 

When the dance was at an end, Ichabod was attracted 
to a knot of the sager folks, who, with Old Van Tassel, 
sat smoking at one end of the piazza, gossiping over 
former times, and drawling out long stories about the war. 

This neighborhood, at the time of which I am speak- 
ing, was one of those highly favored places which 
abound with chronicle and great men. The British 
and American line had run near it during the war; it 
had, therefore, been the scene of marauding and in- 
fested with refugees, cow-boys, and all kinds of border 
chivalry. Just sufficient time had elapsed to enable 
each story-teller to dress up his tale with a little becom- 
ing fiction, and, in the indistinctness of his recollection, 
to make himself the hero of every exploit. 



Cow-boys: British irregulars, who infested the neutral ground 
located between the British and American lines, and robbed all 
those persons who had taken the oath of allegiance to the Amer- 
ican cause. 



THE LEGEND OF. SLEEPY HOLLOW 103 

There was the story -of Doffue MartHng, a large blue- 
bearded Dutchman, who had nearly taken a British 
frigate with an old iron nine-pounder from a mud 
breastwork, only that his gun burst at the sixth dis- 
charge. And there was an old gentleman who shall 
be nameless, being too rich a mynheer to be lightly 
mentioned, who in the battle of Whiteplains, being an 
excellent master of defence, parried a musket-ball 
with a small-sword, insomuch that he absolutely felt 
it whiz round the blade, and glance off at the hilt; 
in proof of which he was ready at any time to show the 
sword, with the hilt a little bent. There were several 
more that had been equally great in the field, not one 
of whom but was persuaded that he had a considerable 
hand in bringing the war to a happy termination. 

But all these were nothing to the tales of ghosts and 
apparitions that succeeded. The neighborhood is 
rich in legendary treasures of the kind. Local tales 
and superstitions thrive best in these sheltered, long- 
settled retreats; but are trampled under foot, by the 
shifting throng that forms the population of most of our 
country places. Besides, there is no encouragement 



Mynheer: The Dutch expression for Mr. or Sir; specifically, 
a Dutchman. 

Whiteplains: The battle took place October 28, 1776. After 
his occupation of New York, Howe made an unsuccessful at- 
tempt to break the blockade by getting in the rear of the Amer- 
ican position. Washington concentrated at Whiteplains and 
Howe tried an attack in front. The engagement was indecisive. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 105 

for ghosts in most of our villages, for they have scarcely 
had time to finish their first nap, and turn themselves 
in their graves, before their surviving friends have 
travelled away from the neighborhood; so that when 
they turn out at night to walk their rounds, they have 
no acquaintance left to call upon. This is perhaps 
the reason why we so seldom hear of ghosts except in 
our long-established Dutch communities. 

The immediate cause, however, of the prevalence of 
supernatural stories in these parts, was doubtless owing 
to the vicinity of Sleepy Hollow. There was a con- 
tagion in the very air that blew from that haunted 
region; it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams and 
fancies infecting all the land. Several of the Sleepy 
Hollow people were present at Van Tassel's, and, as 
usual, were doling out their wild and wonderful legends. 
Many dismal tales were told about funeral trains, and 
mourning cries and wailings heard and seen about the 
great tree where the unfortunate Major Andre was 



Major Andre was acting adjutant-general to Sir Henry Clin- 
ton and the unfortunate victim of Benedict Arnold's treason. 
He was sent by Clinton to arrange with Arnold the details of the 
latter's projected treachery. The two conferred in secret near 
Stony Point, and Andre started back to New York. When near 
Tarrytown he was stopped by three Americans, searched, and 
delivered to the nearest military authorities. A military court 
condemned him to death and he was hanged at Tappan, October 
2, 1780. In 1821 his remains were placed in a grave in West- 
minster Abbey. The three patriots, John Paulding, David 
Williams, and Isaac Van Wart, were rewarded by Congress. 



106 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

taken, and which stood in the neighborhood. Some 
mention was made also of the woman in white, that 
haunted the dark glen at Raven Rock, and was often 
heard to shriek on winter nights before a storm, having 
perished there in the snow. The chief part of the 
stories, however, turned upon the favorite spectre 
of Sleepy Hollow, the headless horseman, who had been 
heard several times of late, patrolling the country; and 
it is said, tethered his horse nightly among the graves 
in the churchyard. 

The sequestrated situation of this church seems al- 
ways to have made it a favorite haunt of troubled 
spirits. It stands on a knoll, surrounded by locust- 
trees and lofty elms, from among which its decent, 
whitewashed walls shine modestly forth, like Christian 
purity, beaming through the shades of retirement. 
A gentle slope descends from it to a silver sheet of 
water, bordered by high trees, between which, peeps 
may be caught at the blue hills of the Hudson. To 
look upon its grass-grown yard, where the sunbeams 
seem to sleep so quietly, one would think that there 
at least the dead might rest in peace. On one side of 
the church extends a wide woody dell, along which 
raves a large brook among broken rocks and trunks of 
fallen trees. Over a deep black part of the stream, not 
far from the church, was formerly thrown a wooden 
bridge; the road that led to it, and the bridge itself, 
were thickly shaded by overhanging trees, which cast a 
gloom about it, even in the daytime; but occasioned a 
fearful darkness at night. Such was one of the favorite 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 107 

haunts of the headless horseman, and the place where 
he was most frequently encountered. The tale was 
told of old Brouwer, a most heretical disbeliever in 
ghosts, how he met the horseman returning from his 
foray into Sleepy Hollow, and was obliged to get up 
behind him; how they galloped over bush and brake, 
over hill and swamp, until they reached the bridge; 
when the horseman suddenly turned into a skeleton, 
threw old Brouwer into the brook, and sprang away 
over the tree tops with a clap of thunder. 

This story was immediately matched by a thrice 
marvellous adventure of Brom Bones, who made light 
of the galloping Hessian as an arrant jockey. He 
affirmed, that on returning one night from the neigh- 
boring village of Sing-Sing, he had been overtaken 
by this midnight trooper; that he had offered to race 
with him for a bowl of punch, and should have won it 
too, for Daredevil beat the goblin horse all hollow, but 
just as they came to the church bridge, the Hessian 
bolted, and vanished in a flash of fire. 

All these tales, told in that drowsy undertone with 
which men talk in the dark, the countenances of the 
listeners only now and then receiving a casual gleam 
from the glare of a pipe, sunk deep in the mind of 
Ichabod. He repaid them in kind with large extracts 
from his invaluable author. Cotton Mather, and added 
many marvellous events that had taken place in his 
native State of Connecticut, and fearful sights which 
he had seen in his nightly walks about Sleepy Hollow. 

The revel now gradually broke up. The old farmers 



108 THE SKETCHBOOK 

gathered together their families in their wagons, and 
were heard for some time ratthng along the hollow 
roads, and over the distant hills. Some of the damsels 
mounted on pillions behind their favorite swains, and 
their light-hearted laughter, mingling with the clatter 
of hoofs, echoed along the silent woodlands, sounding 
fainter and fainter, until they gradually died away — 
and the late scene of noise and frolic was all silent and 
deserted. Ichabod only lingered behind, according to 
the custom of country lovers, to have a tete-a-tete with 
the heiress; fully convinced that he was now on the 
high road to success. What passed at this interview I 
will not pretend to say, for in fact I do not know. 
Something, however, I fear me, must have gone wrong, 
for he certainly sallied forth, after no very great inter- 
val, with an air quite desolate and chapf alien — Oh, 
these women! these women! Could that girl have been 
playing off any of her coquettish tricks? — Was her 
encouragement of the poor pedagogue all a mere sham 
to secure her conquest of his rival? — Heaven only 
knows, not I! — Let it suffice to say, Ichabod stole forth 
with the air of one who had been sacking a hen-roost, 
rather than a fair lady's heart. Without looking to 
the right or left to notice the scene of rural wealth, on 
which he had so often gloated, he went straight to the 
stable, and with several hearty cuffs and kicks, roused 

Pillions: A cushion fitted to a saddle behind as a seat for a 
second person, usually a woman. 

Tete-a-tete: Face to face: a confidential conversation. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 109 

his steed most uncourteously from the comfortable 
quarters in which he was soundly sleeping, dreaming of 
mountains of corn and oats, and whole valleys of tim- 
othy and clover. 

It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod, 
heavy-hearted and crest-fallen, pursued his travel 
homewards, along the sides of the lofty hills which rise 
above Tarry Town, and which he had traversed so 
cheerily in the afternoon. The hour was as dismal as 
himself. Far below him the Tappan Zee spread its 
dusky and indistinct waste of waters, with here and 
there the tall mast of a sloop, riding quietly at anchor 
under the land. In the dead hush of midnight, he 
could even hear the barking of the watch-dog from 
the opposite shore of the Hudson; but it was so vague 
and faint as only to give an idea of his distance from 
this faithful companion of man. Now and then, too, 
the long-drawn crowing of a cock, accidentally awak- 
ened, would sound far, far off, from some farm-house 
away among the hills — but it was like a dreaming sound 
in his ear. No sign of life occurred near him, but occa- 
sionally the melancholy chirp of a cricket, or perhaps 
the guttural twang of a bull-frog from a neighboring 
marsh, as if sleeping uncomfortably, and turning sud- 
denly in his bed. 

All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard 
in the afternoon, now came crowding upon his recollec- 
tion. The night grew darker and darker; the stars 
seemed to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds 
occasionally hid them from his sight. He had never 



110 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

felt so lonely and dismal. He was, moreover, approach- 
ing the very place where many of the scenes of the 
ghost stories had been laid. In the centre of the road 
stood an enormous tulip-tree, which towered like a giant 
above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and 
formed a kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled and 
fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary 
trees, twisting down almost to the earth, and rising 
again into the air. It was connected with the tragical 
story of the unfortunate Andre, who had been taken 
prisoner hard by; and was universally known by the 
name of Major Andre's tree. The common people 
regarded it with a mixture of respect and superstition, 
partly out of sympathy for the fate of its ill-starred 
namesake, and partly from the tales of strange sights, 
and doleful lamentations, told concerning it. 

As Ichabod approached this fearful tree, he began to 
whistle; he thought his whistle was answered: it was 
but a blast sweeping sharply through the dry branches. 
As he approached a little nearer, he thought he saw 
something white, hanging in the midst of the tree: he 
paused, and ceased whisthng; but on looking more 
narrowly, perceived that it was a place where the tree 
had been scathed by lightning, and the white wood laid 
bare. Suddenly he heard a groan — his teeth chattered, 
and his knees smote against the saddle : it was but the 
rubbing of one huge bough upon another, as they were 
swayed about by the breeze. He passed the tree in 
safety, but new perils lay before him. 

About two hundred yards from the tree, a small brook 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 111 

crossed the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly- 
wooded glen, known by the name of Wiley's Swamp. 
A few rough logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge 
over this stream. On that side of the road where the 
brook entered the wood, a group of oaks and chestnuts, 
matted thick with wild grape-vines, threw a cavernous 
gloom over it. To pass this bridge, was the severest 
trial. It was at this identical spot that the unfortunate 
Andre was captured, and under the covert of those 
chestnuts and vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed 
who surprised him. This has ever since been consid- 
ered a haunted stream, and fearful are the feelings of a 
school-boy who has to pass it alone after dark. 

As he approached the stream, his heart began to 
thump; he summoned up, however, all his resolution, 
gave his horse half a score of kicks in the ribs, and at- 
tempted to dash briskly across the bridge; but in- 
stead of starting forward, the perverse old animal made 
a lateral movement, and ran broadside against the 
fence. Ichabod, whose fears increased with the delay, 
jerked the reins on the other side, and kicked lustily 
with the contrary foot: it was all in vain; his steed 
started, it is true, but it was only to plunge to the 
opposite side of the road into a thicket of brambles 
and alder-bushes. The schoolmaster now bestowed 
both whip and heel upon the starveling ribs of old Gun- 
powder, who dashed forward, snuffling and snorting, 
but came to a stand just by the bridge, with a sud- 
denness that had nearly sent his rider sprawling over 
his head. Just at this moment a plashy tramp by 



112 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

the side of the bridge caught the sensitive ear of 
Ichabod. In the dark shadow of the grove, on the 
margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, mis- 
shapen, black and towering. It stirred not, but 
seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic 
monster ready to spring upon the traveller. 

The hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon his 
head with terror. What was to be done? To turn 
and fly was now too late; and besides, what chance 
was there of escaping ghost or goblin, if such it was, 
which could ride upon the wings of the wind? Sum- 
moning up, therefore, a show of courage, he demanded 
in stammering accents — '' who are you?" He re- 
ceived no reply. He repeated his demand in a still 
more agitated voice. Still there was no answer. Once 
more he cudgelled the sides of the inflexible Gun- 
powder, and shutting his eyes, broke forth with in- 
voluntary fervor into a psalm tune. Just then the 
shadowy object of alarm put itself in motion, and with 
a scramble and a bound, stood at once in the middle 
of the road. Though the night was dark and dismal, 
yet the form of the unknown might now in some degree 
be ascertained. He appeared to be a horseman of large 
dimensions, and mounted on a black horse of powerful 
frame. He made no offer of molestation or sociability, 
but kept aloof on one side of the road, jogging along on 
the blind side of old Gunpowder, who had now got over 
his fright and waywardness. 

Ichabod, who had no relish for this strange midnight 
companion, and bethought himself of the adventure of 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 113 

Brom Bones with the galloping Hessian, now quickened 
his steed, in hopes of leaving him behind. The stranger, 
however, quickened his horse to an equal pace. Icha- 
bod pulled up, and fell into a walk, thinking to lag be- 
hind — the other did the same. His heart began to 
sink within him; he endeavored to resume his psalm 
tune, but his parched tongue clove to the roof of his 
mouth, and he could not utter a stave. There was 
something in the moody and dogged silence of this 
pertinacious companion, that was mysterious and ap- 
palling. It was soon fearfully accounted for. On 
mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of 
his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic 
in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror 
struck, on perceiving that he was headless! but his 
horror was still more increased, on observing that the 
head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was 
carried before him on the pommel of his saddle! His 
terror rose to desperation; he rained a shower of kicks 
and blows upon Gunpowder, hoping, by a sudden 
movement, to give his companion the slip — but the 
spectre started full jump with him. Away, then, they 
dashed through thick and thin; stones flying and sparks 
flashing at every bound. Ichabod's flimsy garments 
fluttered in the air, as he stretched his long lank body 
away over his horse's head, in the eagerness of his flight. 
They had now reached the road which turns off to 
Sleepy Hollow; but Gunpowder, who seemed possessed 
with a demon, instead of keeping up it, made an op- 
posite turn and plunged headlong down hill to the left. 



114 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

This road leads through a sandy hollow, shaded by 
trees for about a quarter of a mile, where it crosses 
the bridge famous in goblin story; and just beyond" 
swells the green knoll on which stands the white- 
washed church. 

As yet the panic of the steed had given his unskilful 
rider an apparent advantage in the chase; but just as he 
had got half-way through the hollow, the girths of the 
saddle gave way, and he felt it slipping from under him. 
He seized it by the pommel, and endeavored to hold it 
firm, but in vain; and had just time to save himself by 
clasping old Gunpowder round the neck, when the sad- 
dle fell to the earth, and he heard it trampled under 
foot by his pursuer. For a moment the terror of Hans 
Van Ripper's wrath passed across his mind — for it was 
his Sunday saddle; but this was no time for petty 
fears; the goblin was hard on his haunches; and (un- 
skilful rider that he was!) he had much ado to main- 
tain his seat ; sometimes slipping on one side, sometimes 
on another, and sometimes jolted on the high ridge of his 
horse's backbone, with a violence that he verily feared 
would cleave him asunder. 

An opening in the trees now cheered him with the 
hopes that the church bridge was at hand. The 
wavering reflection of a silver star in the bosom of the 
brook told him that he was not mistaken. He saw the 
walls of the church dimly glaring under the trees be- 
yond. He recollected the place where Brom Bones' 
ghostly competitor had disappeared. " If I can but 
reach that bridge," thought Ichabod, '' I am safe." 



116 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing 
close behind him; he even fancied that he felt his hot 
breath. Another convulsive kick in the ribs, and old' 
Gunpowder sprang upon the bridge; he thundered over 
the resounding planks; he gained the opposite side, 
and now Ichabod cast a look behind to see if his pursuer 
should vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and 
brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in his 
stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. 
Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but 
'jOO late. It encountered his cranium with a tremen- 
dous crash — he was tumbled headlong into the dust, 
and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider, 
passed by like a whirlwind. 

The next morning the old horse was found without 
his saddle, and with the bridle under his feet, soberly 
cropping the grass at his master's gate. Ichabod did 
not make his appearance at breakfast; dinner-hour 
came, but no Ichabod. The boys assembled at the 
school-house and strolled idly about the banks of the 
brook; but no schoolmaster. Hans Van Ripper now 
began to feel some uneasiness about the fate of poor 
Ichabod, and his saddle. An inquiry was set on foot, 
and after diligent investigation they came upon his 
traces. In one part of the road leading to the church, 
was found the saddle, trampled in the dirt; the tracks 
of horses' hoofs deeply dented in the road, and, evi- 
dently at furious speed, were traced to the bridge, 
beyond which, on the bank of a broad part of the 
brook, where the water ran deep and black, was found 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 117 

the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside 
it a shattered pumpkin. 

The brook was searched, but the body of the school- 
master was not to be discovered. Hans Van Ripper, 
as executor of his estate, examined the bundle which 
contained all his worldly effects. They consisted of two 
shirts and a half; two stocks for the neck; a pair or two 
of worsted stockings; an old pair of corduroy small- 
clothes; a rusty razor; a book of psalm tunes full of 
dog's ears; and a broken pitch-pipe. As to the books 
and furniture of the school-house, they belonged to the 
community, excepting Cotton Mather's History of 
Witchcraft, a New England Almanac, and a book of 
dreams and fortune-telling; in which last was a sheet 
of foolscap much scribbled and blotted, by several fruit- 
less attempts to make a copy of verses in honor of the 
heiress of Van Tassel. These magic books and the 
poetic scrawl were forthwith consigned to the flames by 
Hans Van Ripper; who, from that time forward, de- 
termined to send his children no more to school ; observ- 
ing that he never knew any good come of this same 
reading and writing. Whatever money the school- 
master possessed, and he had received his quarter's pay 
but a day or two before, he must have had about his 
person at the time of his disappearance. 

Executor: The person appointed by the maker of a will to see 
that its provisions are carried into effect. 

Dog's ears: The turned down corners of the leaves of a book, 
or bent over like the ears of a dog. 



118 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

The mysterious event caused much speculation at 
the church on the following Sunday. Knots of gazers 
and gossips were collected in the churchyard, at fchS 
bridge, and at the spot where the hat and pumpkin had 
been found. The stories of Brouwer, of Bones, and a 
whole budget of others, were called to mind; and when 
they had diligently considered them all, and com- 
pared them with the symptoms of the present case, 
they shook their heads, and came to the conclusion, 
that Ichabod had been carried off by the galloping 
Hessian. As he was a bachelor, and in nobody's debt, 
nobody troubled his head any more about him; the 
school was removed to a different quarter of the 
Hollow, and another pedagogue reigned in his stead. 

It is true, an old farmer, who had been down to 
New York on a visit several years after, and from whom 
this account of the ghostly adventure was received, 
brought home the intelligence that Ichabod Crane 
was still alive; that he had left the neighborhood partly 
through fear of the goblin and Hans Van Ripper, and 
partly in mortification at having been suddenly dis- 
missed by the heiress; that he had changed his quarters 
to a distant part of the country; had kept school and 
studied law at the same time ; had been admitted to the 
bar; turned politician; electioneered; written for the 
newspapers; and finally, had been made a Justice of the 
Ten Pound Court. Brom Bones, too, who, shortly 

Ten Pound Court: An inferior court having jurisdiction over 
cases not exceeding ten pounds. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 119 

after his rival's disappearance, conducted the bloom- 
ing Katrina in triumph to the altar, was observed to 
look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of 
Ichabod was related, and always burst into a hearty 
laugh at the mention of the pumpkin; which led some to 
suspect that he knew more about the matter than he 
chose to tell. 

The old country wives, however, who are the best 
judges of these matters, maintain to this day, that 
Ichabod was spirited away by supernatural means; 
and it is a favorite story often told about the neighbor- 
hood round the winter evening fire. The bridge be- 
came more than ever an object of superstitious awe; 
and that may be the reason why the road has been 
altered of late years, so as to approach the church by 
the border of the mill-pond. The school-house being 
deserted, soon fell to decay, and was reported to be 
haunted by the ghost of the unfortunate pedagogue; 
and the plough-boy, loitering homeward of a still sum- 
mer evening, has often fancied his voice at a distance, 
chanting a melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil 
solitudes of Sleepy Hollow. 

POSTSCRIPT, 

FOUND IN THE HANDWRITING OF MR. KNICKERBOCKER 

The preceding Tale is given, almost in the precise 
words in which I heard it related at a Corporation 

Postscript : A paragraph added to a letter or to a book which 
has already been concluded and signed by the writer. 



120 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

meeting of the ancient city of the Manhattoes, at 
which were present many of its sagest and most il- 
lustrious burghers. The narrator was a pleasant,- 
shabby, gentlemanly old fellow in pepper-and-salt 
clothes, with a sadly humorous face; and one whom I 
strongly suspected of being poor, — he made such 
efforts to be entertaining. When his story was con- 
cluded there was much laughter and approbation, par- 
ticularly from two or three deputy aldermen, who had 
been asleep the greater part of the time. There was, 
however, one tall, dry-looking old gentleman, with 
beetling eye-brows, who maintained a grave and 
rather severe face throughout; now and then folding 
his arms, inclining his head, and looking down upon 
the floor, as if turning a doubt over in his mind. He 
was one of your wary men, who never laugh but 
upon good ground — when they have reason and the 
law on their side. When the mirth of the rest of the 
company had subsided, and silence was restored, he 
leaned one arm on the elbow of his chair, and sticking 
the other a-kimbo, demanded, with a slight but ex- 
ceedingly sage motion of the head, and contraction of 
the brow, what was the moral of the story, and what 
it went to prove. 

The story-teller, who was just putting a glass of wine 
to his lips, as a refreshment after his toils, paused for a 
moment, looked at his inquirer with an air of infinite 
deference, and lowering the glass slowly to the table, 
observed that the story was intended most logically to 
prove: — 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 121 

*' That there is no situation in Hfe but has its ad- 
vantages and pleasures — provided we will but take a 
joke as we find it: 

^' That, therefore, he that runs races with goblin 
troopers, is likely to have rough riding of it: 

'^ Ergo, for a country schoolmaster to be refused the 
hand of a Dutch heiress, is a certain step to high pre- 
ferment in the state." 

The cautious old gentleman knit his brows tenfold 
closer after this explanation, being sorely puzzled by 
the ratiocination of the syllogism; while, methought, 
the one in pepper-and-salt eyed him with something 
of a triumphant leer. At length he observed, that all 
this was very well, but still he thought the story a little 
on the extravagant — there were one or two points on 
which he had his doubts: 

'' Faith, sir," replied the story-teller, '' as to that 
matter, I don't believe one-half of it myself." 

D. K. 

Ergo: A Latin word meaning therefore. 

Ratiocination: The process of reasoning. 

Syllogism: A form of reasoning consisting of three proposi- 
tions, the first two of which are called the premises and the third 
the conclusion; if the two premises are true, the conclusion neces- 
sarily follows. 



SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS 

1. Where is Sleepy Hollow? Give a description of it. 

2. Name the hero of the sketch; the heroine. 

3. What is the general character of this sketch? 



122 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

4. Give Hans Van Ripper's views on education. 

5. What are the chief traits of the hero's character? 

6. Which predominates in the sketch, character sketching pr 
nature study? 

7. How were the guests entertained at the quilting-bee? 

8. Describe the "School in Sleepy Hollow." 

9. Compare the schoolmaster in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 
with the schoolmaster in Snow-hound and Goldsmith's Deserted 
Village. 

10. Which scene do you consider the most humorous? the most 
ludicrous? 

11. Select the best description of the following: Persons, 
horses, buildings, scenes. Reproduce one of the selections in 
your own language. 

12. Write a description of some farmhouse that you have seen, 
using Irving's description of the Van Tassel farmhouse as a 
model. 

13. Describe the Headless Horseman as Ichabod saw him. 

14. Name the best part of the story, and give your reasons for 
the selection. 

15. Gather together all that the author says of any one char- 
acter, summarizing each named. 

16. What are the chief traits of the heroine's character? 

17. Who settled Ichabod's estate? Enumerate his posses- 
sions. 

18. What kind of a habit is an "inveterate" habit? 

19. Why did Irving characterize Ichabod's courtship as an 
"enterprise"? 



CHRISTMAS EVE 



Saint Francis and Saint Benedight 
Blesse this house from wicked wight; 
From the night-mare and the gobUn, 
That is hight good fellow Robin; 
Keep it from all evil spirits, 
Fairies, weezels, rats, and ferrets: 

From curfew time 

To the next prime. 

Cartwright. 

It was a brilliant moonlight night, but extremely 
cold; our chaise whirled rapidly over the frozen ground; 
the postboy smacked his whip incessantly, and a part 
of the time his horses were on a gallop. " He knows 
where he is going," said my companion, laughing, " and 

Saint Francis (1182-1226): Founder of the sacred order of 
Franciscan Friars. 

Saint Benedight (480-543): Founder of the sacred order of 
Benedictine Monks. 

Good fellow Robin: Puck, a celebrated fairy, "the merry 
wanderer of the night," who figures largely in Shakespeare's 
Midsummer Night's Dream. 

Cartwright (1611-43) : An English poet and dramatist. The 
stanza is quoted from The Ordinary, III, i. 

123 



124 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

is eager to arrive in time for some of the merriment and 
good cheer of the servants' hall. My father, you 
must know, is a bigoted devotee of the old school, and 
prides himself upon keeping up something of old En- 
glish hospitality. He is a tolerable specimen of what 
you will rarely meet with nowadays in its purity, the 
old English country gentleman; for our men of fortune 
spend so much of their time in town, and fashion is 
carried so much into the country, that the strong, 
rich peculiarities of ancient rural life are almost polished 
away. My father, however, from early years, took 
honest Peacham for his text-book instead of Chester- 
field; he determined in his own mind that there was 



Old school: A school or party belonging to a former time. 

Gentleman: Any man above the social rank of yeoman; in 
a more limited sense, a man who without a title bears a coat of 
arms or whose ancestors have been freemen; one of the class 
holding a middle rank between nobility and yeomanry. — Century 
Dictionary. 

Peacham, Henry: Author of The Complete Gentleman, pub- 
lished in 1622. Among other things he said: "I detest that 
effeminacy of the most that burn out day and night in their beds 
and by the fireside, in trifles, gaming or courting all the winter 
in the city; appearing but as cuckoos in the spring, one time in 
the year to the country and their tenants, leaving the care of 
keeping good houses at Christmas to the honest yeoman of the 
country." 

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) : Famous as a man of fashion. 
His work is Letters to His Son, in which he lays down many rules 
of conduct. To speak of a man as a Chesterfield is synonymous 
with saying that he is a model of politeness. 



CHRISTMAS EVE 125 

no condition more truly honorable and enviable than 
that of a country gentleman on his paternal lands, and 
therefore passes the whole of his time on his estate. He 
is a strenuous advocate for the revival of the old rural 
games and holiday observances, and is deeply read in 
the writers, ancient and modern, who have treated on 
the subject. Indeed his favorite range of reading is 
among the authors who flourished at least two centuries 
since, who, he insists, wrote and thought more like 
true Englishmen than any of their successors. He 
even regrets sometimes that he had not been born a few 
centuries earlier, when England was itself and had 
its peculiar manners and customs. As he lives at 
some distance from the main road, in rather a lonely 
part of the country, without any rival gentry near him, 
he has that most enviable of all blessings to an English- 
man, an opportunity of indulging the bent of his own 
humor without molestation. Being representative of 
the oldest family in the neighborhood, and a great part 
of the peasantry being his tenants, he is much looked up 
to, and in general is known simply by the appellation 
of ' The Squire,' a title which has been accorded to the 
head of the family since time immemorial. I think it 
best to give you these hints about my worthy old 



"The Squire": In England a landed proprietor who is also 
justice of the peace; a term nearly equivalent to lord of the manor, 
as meaning the holder of most of the land in any neighborhood. 
— Century Dictionary. 

Time immemorial: Time beyond memory. 



126 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

father, to prepare you for any eccentricities that might 
otherwise appear absurd." 

We had passed for some time along the wall of a park", 
and at length the chaise stopped at the gate. It was 
in a heavy magnificent old style, of iron bars, fancifully 
wrought at top into flourishes and flowers. The huge 
square columns that supported the gate were sur- 
mounted by the family crest. Close adjoining was 
the porter's lodge, sheltered under dark fir trees, and 
almost buried in shrubbery. 

The postboy rang a large porter's bell, which re- 
sounded through the still frosty air, and was answered 
by the distant barking of dogs with which the mansion 
house seemed garrisoned. An old woman immediately 
appeared at the gate. As the moonlight fell strongly 
upon her, I had a full view of a little primitive dame 
dressed very much in the antique taste, with a neat 
kerchief and stomacher, and her silver hair peeping from 
under a cap of snowy whiteness. She came courtesying 
forth with many expressions of simple joy at seeing 
her young master. Her husband, it seemed, was up at 
the house keeping Christmas eve in the servants' hall; 
they could not do without him, as he was the best hand 
at a song and story in the household. 

My friend proposed that we should alight and walk 
through the park to the hall, which was at no great 
distance, while the chaise should follow on. Our road 
wound through a noble avenue of trees, among the 

Kerchief: A cover for the head. 



CHRISTMAS EVE 127 

naked branches of which the moon glittered as she 
rolled through the deep vault of a cloudless sky. The 
lawn beyond was sheeted with a slight covering of 
snow, which here and there sparkled as the moonbeams 
caught a frosty crystal ; and at a distance might be seen 
a thin transparent vapor stealing up from the low 
grounds and threatening gradually to shroud the land- 
scape. 

My companion looked around him with transport: 
" How often," said he, " have I scampered up this 
avenue on returning home on school vacations! How 
often have I played under these trees when a boy! 
I feel a degree of filial reverence for them, as we look 
up to those who have cherished us in childhood. My 
father was always scrupulous in exacting our holidays 
and having us around him on family festivals. He 
used to direct and superintend our games with the 
strictness that some parents do the studies of their 
children. He was very particular that we should 
play the old English games according to their original 
form ; and consulted old books for precedent and author- 
ity for every ' merrie disport '; yet I assure you there 
never was pedantry so delightful. It was the policy 
of the good old gentleman to make his children feel 
that home was the happiest place in the world; and I 
value this delicious home feeling as one of the choicest 
gifts a parent could bestow." 

We were interrupted by the clamor of a troop of dogs 

Pedantry: A boastful display of learning. 



128 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

of all sorts and sizes, '' mongrel, puppy, whelp, and 
hound, and curs of low degree," that, disturbed by the 
ring of the porter's bell and the rattling of the chaise 
came bounding open-mouthed across the lawn. 

" The little dogs and all, 

Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me!" 

cried Bracebridge, laughing. At the sound of his voice 
the bark was changed into a yelp of delight, and in a 
moment he was surrounded and almost overpowered 
by the caresses of the faithful animals. 

We had now come in full view of the old family 
mansion, partly thrown in deep shadow, and partly lit 
up by the cold moonshine. It was an irregular building 
of some magnitude, and seemed to be of the architec- 
ture of different periods. One wing was evidently very 
ancient, with heavy stone-shafted bow windows jutting 
out and overrun with ivy, from among the foliage of 
which the small diamond-shaped panes of glass glit- 
tered with the moonbeams. The rest of the house was 
in the French taste of Charles the Second's time, having 
been repaired and altered, as my friend told me, by one 
of his ancestors who returned with, that monarch at the 



"Mongrel, puppy, etc.": See Goldsmith's "Elegy on the 
Death of a Mad Dog," in The Vicar of Wakefield, Chapter xvii. 

"The little dogs and all": From King Lear, III, vi, 11, 66, 
67. 



CHRISTMAS EVE 129 

Restoration. The grounds about the house were laid 
out in the old formal manner of artificial flower-beds, 
clipped shrubberies, raised terraces, and heavy stone 
balustrades, ornamented with urns, a leaden statue or 
two, and a jet of water. The old gentleman, I was told, 
was extremely careful to preserve this obsolete finery 
in all its original state. He admired this fashion in 
gardening: it had an air of magnificence, was courtly 
and noble, and befitting good old family style. The 
boasted imitation of nature in modern gardening had 
sprung up with modern republican notions, but did 
not suit a monarchical government; it smacked of the 
levelling system. I could not help smiling at this 
introduction of politics into gardening, though I ex- 
pressed some apprehension that I should find the 
old gentleman rather intolerant in his creed. Frank 
assured me, however, that it was almost the only in- 
stance in which he had ever heard his father meddle 
with politics; and he believed that he had got this 
notion from a member of Parliament who once passed 
a few weeks with him. The squire was glad of any 
argument to defend his clipped yew trees and formal 
terraces, which had been occasionally attacked by 
modern landscape gardeners. 

As we approached the house we heard the sound of 
music, and now and then a burst of laughter from one 
end of the building. This, Bracebridge said, must pro- 

Restoration: The return of Charles II in 1660 to the English 
throne after the period of Puritan supremacy. 



130 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

ceed from the servants' hall, where a great deal of 
revelry was permitted and even encouraged by the 
squire throughout the twelve days of Christmas, pr^o- 
vided everything was done conformably to ancient 
usage. Here were kept up the old games of hoodman 
blind, shoe the wild mare, hot cockles, steal the white 
loaf, bob apple, and snap dragon; the Yule clog and 

Twelve days of Christmas: The Christmas celebration 
formerly lasted until twelfth-night, from December 25th to 
January 6th. 

Hoodman blind: Blindman's buff. 

Shoe the wild mare: An old harvest game; riding the wild 
mare; a game of see-saw. 

Hot cockles: A game in which the blindfolded person must 
guess who has struck him. 

Steal the white loaf: A loaf of bread is placed upon the 
table; the members of the party are disguised; the one elected 
places his hand upon the loaf and guesses the names of those 
present; for every name correctly guessed a forfeit is due. 

Bob apple : Catching with the teeth an apple floating in a tub 
of water. 

Snap dragon: A game in which raisins are snatched from a 
shallow dish of burning brandy. 

The Yule clog: A great log of wood, sometimes the root of a 
tree, brought into the house with great ceremony on Christmas 
eve, laid in the fireplace, and lighted with the brand of last 
year's clog. While it lasted, there was great drinking, singing, 
and telling of tales. Sometimes it was accompanied by Christmas 
candles; but in the cottages the only light was from the ruddy 



CHRISTMAS EVE 131 

Christmas candle were regularly burnt, and the 
mistletoe with its white berries hung up, to the im- 
minent peril of all the pretty housemaids. 

So intent were the servants upon their sports that 
we had to ring repeatedly before we could make our- 
selves heard. On our arrival being announced, the 
squire came out to receive us, accompanied by his two 
other sons — one a young officer in the army, home on 
leave of absence; the other an Oxonian, just from the 
university. The squire was a fine, healthy-looking 

blaze of the great wood fire. The yule clog was to burn all night; 
if it went out, it was considered a sign of ill luck. 
Herrick mentions it in one of his songs: 
Come, bring with a noise, 
My merrie, merrie boyes, 
The Christmas log to the firing. 
While my good dame, she 
Bids ye all be free. 
And drink to your hearts desiring. 

The Yule clog is still burnt in many farmhouses and kitchens 
in England, particularly in the north, and there are several super- 
stitions connected with it among the peasantry. If a squinting 
person come to the house while it is burning, or a person bare- 
footed, it is considered an ill omen. The brand remaining from 
the Yule clog is carefully put away to light the next year's 
Christmas fire. — Irving's Note. 

Mistletoe: The mistletoe is still hung up in farmhouses and 
kitchens at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege 
of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the 
bush. When the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases. — 
Irying's Note. 

Oxonian: A student at Oxford. 



132 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

old gentleman, with silver hair curling lightly round 
an open florid countenance, in which the physiognomist 
with the advantage hke myself of a previous hint pr 
two, might discover a singular mixture of whim and 
benevolence. 

The family meeting was warm and affectionate. As 
the evening was far advanced, the squire would not per- 
mit us to change our traveling dresses, but ushered us 
at once to the company, which was assembled in a large 
old-fashioned hall. It was composed of different 
branches of a numerous family connection, where there 
were the usual proportion of old uncles and aunts, com- 
fortable married dames, superannuated spinsters, 
blooming country cousins, half-fledged striplings, and 
bright-eyed boarding-school hoydens. They were 
variously occupied: some at a round game of cards, 
others conversing around the fireplace; at one end of 
the hall was a group of the young folks, some nearly 
grown up, others of a more tender and budding age, 
fully engrossed by a merry game; and a profusion of 
wooden horses, penny trumpets, and tattered dolls 
about the floor showed traces of a troop of little 
fairy beings, who, having frolicked through a happy 
day, had been carried off to slumber through a peace- 
ful night. 

While the mutual greetings were going on between 
young Bracebridge and his relatives, I had time to scan 
the apartment. I have called it a hall, for so it had 
certainly been in old times, and the squire had evi- 
dently endeavored to restore it to something of its 



CHRISTMAS EVE 133 

primitive state. Over the heavy projecting fireplace 
was suspended a picture of a warrior in armor, standing 
by a white horse, and on the opposite wall hung a 
helmet, buckler, and lance. At one end an enormous 
pair of antlers were inserted in the wall, the branches 
serving as hooks on which to suspend hats, whips, and 
spurs; and in the corners of the apartment were fowling- 
pieces, fishing-rods, and other sporting implements. 
The furniture was of the cumbrous workmanship of 
former days, though some articles of modern con- 
venience had been added, and the oaken floor had been 
carpeted; so that the whole presented an odd mixture 
of parlor and hall. 

The grate had been removed from the wide over- 
whelming fireplace, to make way for a fire of wood, in 
the midst of which was an enormous log glowing and 
blazing, and sending forth a vast volume of light and 
heat: this I understood was the Yule clog, which the 
squire was particular in having brought in and illumined 
on a Christmas eve according to ancient custom. 

It was really delightful to see the old squire seated 
in his hereditary elbow chair by the hospitable fireside 
of his ancestors, and looking around him like the sun 
of a system, beaming warmth and gladness to every 
heart. Even the very dog that lay stretched at his 
feet, as he lazily shifted his position and yawned, 
would look fondly up in his master's face, wag his tail 
against the floor, and stretch himself again to sleep, 
confident of kindness and protection. There is an 
emanation from the heart in genuine hospitality which 



134 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

cannot be described, but is immediately felt, and puts 
the stranger at once at his ease. I had not been seated 
many minutes by the comfortable hearth of the worthj^ 
old cavalier before I found myself as much at home as if 
I had been one of the family. 

Supper was announced shortly after our arrival. It 
was served up in a spacious oaken chamber, the panels 
of which shone with wax, and around which were 
several family portraits decorated with holly and ivy. 
Besides the accustomed lights, two great wax tapers 
called Christmas candles, wreathed with greens, were 
placed on a highly polished beaufet among the family 
plate. The table was abundantly spread with sub- 
stantial fare; but the squire made his supper of fru- 
menty, a dish made of wheat cakes boiled in milk, with 
rich spices, being a .standing dish in old times for 
Christmas eve. 

I was happy to find my old friend, minced pie, in the 
retinue of the feast; and finding him to be perfectly 
orthodox, and that I need not be ashamed of my pred- 
ilection, I greeted him with all the warmth where- 
with we usually greet an old and very genteel ac- 
quaintance. 

The mirth of the company was greatly promoted 
by the humors of an eccentric personage whom Mr. 
Bracebridge always addressed with the quaint appella- 
tion of Master Simon. He was a tight, brisk little man, 
with the air of an arrant old bachelor. His nose was 
shaped like the bill of a parrot; his face slightly pitted 
with the small-pox, with a dry perpetual bloom on it 



CHRISTMAS EVE 135 

like a frost-bitten leaf in autumn. He had an eye of 
great quickness and vivacity, with a drollery and lurk- 
ing waggery of expression that was irresistible. He was 
evidently the wit of the family, dealing very much in 
sly jokes and innuendoes with the ladies, and making 
infinite merriment by harping upon old themes, which, 
unfortunately, my ignorance of the family chronicles 
did not permit me to enjoy. It seemed to be his great 
delight during supper to keep a young girl next him in 
a continual agony of stifled laughter, in spite of her awe 
of the reproving looks of her mother, who sat opposite. 
Indeed, he was the idol of the younger part of the 
company, who laughed at everything he said or did, 
and at every turn of his countenance; I could not 
wonder at it, for he must have been a miracle of ac- 
complishments in their eyes. He could imitate Punch 
and Judy; make an old woman of his hand, with the 
assistance of a burnt cork and pocket handkerchief; 
and cut an orange into such a ludicrous caricature 
that the young folks were ready to die with laugh- 
ing. 

I was let briefly into his history by Frank Brace- 
bridge. He was an old bachelor, of a small independent 
income, which by careful management was sufficient for 
all his wants. He revolved through the family system 
like a vagrant comet in its orbit; sometimes visiting 



Punch and Judy: A famous street puppet-show; Punch 
strangles his child, beats his wife, and does other outrageous 
things in a comical way. 



136 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

one branch, and sometimes another quite remote; as is 
often the case with gentlemen of extensive connections 
and small fortunes in England. He had a chirping 
buoyant disposition, always enjoying the present 
moment; and his frequent change of scene and company 
prevented his acquiring those rusty unaccommodating 
habits with which old bachelors are so uncharitably 
charged. He was a complete family chronicle, being 
versed in the genealogy, history, and intermarriages 
of the whole house of Bracebridge, which made him a 
great favorite with the old folks; he was a beau of all 
the elder ladies and superannuated spinsters, among 
whom he was habitually considered rather a young 
fellow; and he was master of the revels among the 
children: so that there was not a more popular being 
in the sphere in which he moved than Mr. Simon 
Bracebridge. Of late ' years he had resided almost 
entirely with the squire, to whom he had become a 
factotum, and whom he particularly delighted by 
jumping with his humor in respect to old times, and 
by having a scrap of an old song to suit every occasion. 
We had presently a specimen of his last-mentioned 
talent, for no sooner was supper removed and spiced 
wines and other beverages peculiar to the season in- 
troduced than Master Simon was called on for a good 
old Christmas song. He bethought himself for a mo- 
ment, and then, with a sparkle of the eye and a voice 
that was by no means bad, excepting that it ran occa- 

Factotum: a jack of all trades. 



CHRISTMAS EVE 137 

sionally into a falsetto like the notes of a split reed, he 
quavered forth a quaint old ditty: 

Now Christmas is come, 

Let us beat up the drum, 
And call all our neighbors together. 

And when they appear, 

Let us make them such cheer. 
As will keep out the wind and the weather, etc. 

The supper had disposed every one to gayety, and 
an old harper was summoned from the servants' hall, 
where he had been strumming all the evening, and to 
all appearance comforting himself with some of the 
squire's home-brewed. He was a kind of hanger-on, 
I was told, of the establishment, and, though ostensibly 
a resident of the village, was oftener to be found in the 
squire's kitchen than his own home, the old gentleman 
being fond of the sound of '^ harp in hall." 

The dance, like most dances after supper, was a 
merry one; some of the older folks joined in it, and the 
squire himself figured down several couple with a 
partner with whom he affirmed he had danced at every 
Christmas for nearly half a century. Master Simon, 
who seemed to be a kind of connecting link between the 
old times and the new, and to be withal a little anti- 
quated in the taste of his accomplishments, evidently 
piqued himself on his dancing, and was endeavoring 
to gain credit by the heel and toe, rigadoon, and other 

Rigadoon: a lively dance for one couple, characterized by a 
peculiar jumping step; it was very popular in England in the 
seventeenth century. 



138 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

graces of the ancient school; but he had unluckily 
assorted himself with a little romping girl from boarding 
school, who by her wild vivacity kept him continually 
on the stretch, and defeated all his sober attempts at 
elegance, — such are the ill-assorted matches to which 
antique gentlemen are unfortunately prone! 

The young Oxonian, on the contrary, had led out 
one of his maiden aunts, on whom the rogue played 
a thousand little knaveries with impunity; he was full 
of practical jokes, and his delight was to tease his 
aunts and cousins; yet, like all madcap youngsters, he 
was a universal favorite among the women. The 
most interesting couple in the dance was the young 
officer and a ward of the squire's, a beautiful blushing 
girl of seventeen. From several shy glances which I 
had noticed in the course of the evening, I suspected 
there was a little kindness growing up between them; 
and indeed the young soldier was just the hero to 
captivate a romantic girl. He was tall, slender, and 
handsome, and, like most young British officers of late 
years, had picked up various small accomplishments 
on the continent — he could talk French and Italian — 
draw landscapes, sing very tolerably — dance divinely; 
but above all he had been wounded at Waterloo. What 



Oxonian: A student or graduate of Oxford University, Eng- 
land, 

Waterloo: A village of Belgium ten miles from Brussels. 
Here the allies under Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon, 
June 18. 1815. 



CHRISTMAS EVE 139 

girl of seventeen, well read in poetry and romance, 
could resist such a mirror of chivalry and perfec- 
tion! 

The moment the dance was over, he caught up a 
guitar, and lolling against the old marble fireplace, in an 
attitude which I am half inclined to suspect was studied, 
began the little French air of the Troubadour. The 
squire, however, exclaimed against having anything on 
Christmas eve but good old English; upon which the 
young minstrel, casting up his eye for a moment as if 
in an effort of memory, struck into another strain, and 
with a charming air of gallantry gave Herrick's Night- 
Piece to Julia: 

Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee: 
The shooting stars attend thee, 

And the elves also, 

Whose little eyes glow 
Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee. 

No Will o' the Wisp mislight thee; 
Nor snake nor slow- worm bite thee; 

But on, on thy way. 

Not making a stay, 
Since ghost there is none to affright thee. 



Little French air: Probably, "O Richard, O mon roi," by 
Gretry. 

Troubadour: Love poets in the south of France. 

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): A writer of charming lyrics. 
The quoted stanza is from his Ceremonies Jor Christmas. 



140 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

Then let not the dark thee cumber; 
What though the moon does slumber, 

The stars of the night 

Will lend thee their light, 
Like tapers clear without number. ' 

Then, Julia, let me woo thee, 
Thus, thus to come unto me. 

And when I shall meet 

Thy silvery feet, 
My soul I'll pour into thee. 

The song might or might not have been intended in 
compliment to the fair Julia, for so I found his partner 
was called; she, however, was certainly unconscious of 
any such application, for she never looked at the singer, 
but kept her eyes cast upon the floor. Her face was 
suffused, it is true, with a beautiful blush, and there was 
a gentle heaving of the bosom, but all that was doubtless 
caused by the exercise of the dance; indeed, so great was 
her indifference, that she amused herself with plucking 
to pieces a choice bouquet of hothouse flowers, and by 
the time the song was concluded the nosegay lay in 
ruins on the floor. 

The party now broke up for the night with the kind- 
hearted old custom of shaking hands. As I passed 
through the hall on my way to my chamber, the dying 
embers of the Yule clog still sent forth a dusky glow, 
and had it not been the season when '' no spirit dares 
stir abroad," I should have been half tempted to steal 
from my room at midnight, and peep whether the fairies 
might not be at their revels about the hearth. 



CHRISTMAS EVE 141 

My chamber was in the old part of the mansion, the 
ponderous furniture of which might have been fabri- 
cated in the days of the giants. The room was panelled 
with cornices of heavy carved work, in which flowers 
and grotesque faces were strangely intermingled; and 
a row of black-looking portraits stared mournfully at 
me from the walls. The bed was of rich though faded 
damask, with a lofty tester, and stood in a niche op- 
posite a bow window. I had scarcely got into bed 
when a strain of music seemed to break forth in the air 
just below the window. I listened, and found it pro- 
ceeded from a band which I concluded to be the waits 
from some neighboring village. They went round the 
house, playing under the windows. I drew aside the 
curtains to hear them more distinctly. The moon- 
beams fell through the upper part of the casement, 
partially lighting up the antiquated apartment. The 
sounds as they receded became more soft and aerial, 
and seemed to accord with the quiet and moonlight. I 
listened and listened; they became more and more 
tender and remote, and as they gradually died away my 
head sunk upon the pillow and I fell asleep. 

Waits: Musicians who sing or play on the streets Christmas 
eve or morning; serenaders. 



SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHRISTMAS EVE 

1. What is the purpose of this sketch? 

2. Name and describe the persons named in it. 

3. Reproduce Frank Bracebridge's description of his father. 



142 THE SKETCH-BOOK 

4. Reproduce in your own language the Christmas Eve fes- 
tivities in Bracebridge Hall. 

5. Consult the dictionary for the meaning of the following 
words: Bigoted, precedent, predilection, innuendo, hereditary, 
arrant, emanation, fabricated. 

6. Give the history of the "Yule log." 

7. Explain the following expressions: A bigoted devotee of 
the old school; filial reverence; retinue of the feast. 

8. Describe the games; the dances. 

9. Characterize Master Simon. 

10. What was the poHcy of the old Squire on the home life 
his children? the author's comments on this policy? 



WASHINGTON IRVING 

(ESSAYIST, ROMANCER, HISTORIAN, BIOGRAPHER, TRAVELER) 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



His Parentage and Birth 



Washington Irving was born in a modest house on WilHam 
Street, midway between Fulton and John streets, in the city of 
New York, April 3, 1783, the year that witnessed the close of the 
Revolutionary struggle. William Irving, his father, was born 
on the island of Shapinska, and traced his descent from William 
De Irwyn, the armor-bearer of Robert Bruce; his mother, Sarah 
Sanders, was an Englishwoman, who lived in the town of Fal- 
mouth. The young couple were married in 1761 and two years 
later sailed for New York. The Revolution was ended and the 
American army entered the city of New York. "Washington's 
work is ended," said the mother, "and the child shall be named 
after him." When Washington Irving was six years old George 
Washington came to New York, then the capital of the country, 
to take the oath of office as the first President of the new republic. 
One day a Scotch maid-servant of the Irving family followed 
President Washington into a shop and said: "Please, your honor, 
here's a bairn that was named after you." With great dignity 
the President laid his hand on the head of the child and bestowed 
his blessing. In later years, Irving said, "that blessing has at- 
tended me through life." 

143 



144 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



His Boyhood and Education 

The city of New York of Irving's day was an interesting place. 
It should be borne in mind that the city numbered less than 23,000 
inhabitants. It covered the lower end of Manhattan Island and 
did not extend northward beyond the present City Hall Park. 
Beyond that were the farms and residences of the Dutch settlers. 
The fashionable promenade was then in Battery Park, while 
Nassau and Pearl streets were places of fashionable residences. 
People seldom took long journeys and mails were not very regular. 
It took a week to go from New York to Boston in a stage-coach, 
and all large rivers had to be crossed in boats. The tastes of 
the people were simple; the manners were agreeably free. Trad- 
ers and merchants constituted the aristocracy. The houses were 
heated by means of large fireplaces. Of books, there were very 
few by American authors. Social life consisted largely in going 
out to dinner or tea or in going to church. Theatres were just 
beginning to be established in spite of furious opposition. A 
newspaper had been established in 1732. While wheeled vehicles 
were coming into use, the people traveled chiefly on horseback. 
"There was still a marked separation between the Dutch and 
English residents, though the Irvings seem to have been on terms 
of intimacy with the best of both nationalities. Although the 
town had a rural aspect, with its quaint dormer-window houses, 
its straggling lanes and roads, and the water-pumps in the middle 
of the streets, it had the aspirations of a city." Throughout 
his boyhood, as Irving tells us in The Sketch-Book, he was fond 
of solitary excursions, wandering into surrounding regions, drink- 
ing in the strange tales told by Dutch housewives of the old days, 
so involved by their drowsy imaginations in mystery and romance. 
These were the surroundings in which the boy's literary talent 
was to develop. 

Not much can be said of Irving's education. ''Like many 
another brilliant writer in English literature, he took little inter- 
est in the prescribed course of study. As was said of Shakespeare, 
he knew little Latin and less Greek, but it must not be supposed 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 145 

that his early years went unimproved." In school he feasted 
on travels and tales, but hated arithmetic. He wrote composi- 
tions for the boys, who, in turn, worked his sums for him. He 
was an eager reader, and devoured such books as Sinhad the 
Sailor, Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe, and Pilgrim's Progress. 
His school education was over at sixteen. To his lasting regret, 
in later life, he did not avail himself of going to Columbia College, 
where his two brothers, Peter and John, had been graduated. 

At the age of sixteen he entered the law office of Judge Jere- 
miah Ogden Hoffman, but he was an indifferent student and never 
acquired a taste for the profession of law. On the contrary, 
he spent most of his time in self-culture, in reading books of 
poetry and travel. In 1789 he made a holiday excursion in 
Westchester County and exploring with his gun the Sleepy 
Hollow section, which he was in after life to immortalize with the 
legend of the Headless Horseman. While a student in Judge 
Hoffman's office he became enamored of Miss Mathilda Hoffman, 
and his ardent love was fully reciprocated. After a brief illness 
Miss Hoffman, who was both lovely in person and mind, died in 
her eighteenth year. Irving never recovered from the effects of 
her death; her Bible and prayer-book were always with him; her 
picture and a lock of her hair were found at his death among his 
private papers. "With a constancy as it is rare he remained 
faithful to his first love throughout life." Miss Hoffman's 
friend, Rebecca Gratz, a Jewess, who cared so solicitously for 
Miss Hoffman during her illness, is the original of Scott's heroine, 
Rebecca. Irving's enthusiasm prompted her creation. 

First Visit to Europe 

At this period Irving showed symptoms of pulmonary weakness, 
and in 1804 his brothers decided to send him to Europe for the 
benefit of his health. Accordingly, he embarked on a sailing 
vessel for Bordeaux. His consumptive appearance caused the 
captain to remark, "There's a chap who will go overboard before 
we get across," but the gloomy prediction was not fulfilled. He 



146 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

visited in succession the principal cities of Italy, France, and Eng- 
land. He met many eminent persons, among them John Kemble 
and Mrs. Siddons. In Rome he met Washington Allston, whose 
enthusiasm for art almost persuaded Irving to become an artist. 
After a stay of two years he took ship for America, and after g, 
rough voyage of nine weeks arrived safely at New York. 

Admission to the Bar 

Irving again took up the study of law, and was admitted to the 
bar of the state of New York in November, 1806. It is generally 
believed that his admission was due more to the friendship and 
good nature of his examiners than to his knowledge of the sub- 
ject. The law was distasteful to him, while society attracted and 
devoured his time. He willingly accepted the office of ''cham- 
pion at the tea parties." In the midst of his social successes 
Irving gave the first decided evidence of the choice of a career. 

Salmagundi 

In association with his brother William and James K. Paulding 
he issued a semimonthly periodical, entitled Salmagundi, which 
ran through twenty numbers and stopped for a lack of apprecia- 
tion. This modest production was an imitation of The Spectator, 
and aimed "simply to instruct the young, reform the old, correct 
the town, and castigate the age." 

IRVING'S LITERARY CAREER 

may be divided into four distinct periods, "corresponding to four 
literary themes which at different periods of his life engage him." 

The Period of Sketches 

This period includes his literary product between 1809 and 1826. 
Irving's second literary venture was his famous Knickerbocker 
History of New York, partly intended as a take-off, a satire on a 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 147 

book just published by Dr. Samuel Mitchell, entitled Picture of 
New York, and a humerous portrayal of the old Dutch settlers 
of New Amsterdam. It won for its author instant fame. It 
became a household word. The book was cleverly advertised 
before it appeared. One day a notice appeared in the New York 
Evening Post under the head of "Distressing." It spoke of the 
disappearance of one Diedrich Knickerbocker. Another notice 
which followed said a very curious manuscript in his own hand- 
writing had been found in his room. The way was thus prepared 
for Knickerbocker's History of New York. Everybody read it 
and everybody laughed except the aggrieved descendants of the 
satirized Dutch settlers. The humor of the book is all the more 
surprising when it is remembered that while Irving was writing 
it he was passing through the greatest sorrow of his life through 
the death of his betrothed, Miss Hoffman. 

For ten years Irving wrote nothing more. Finally, he went to 
England in behalf of the business in which he and his brothers 
were interested. The business was a failure, but still Irving 
remained in England. A government position in Washington had 
been offered him, but he refused it. Irving was at this time about 
thirty-five years of age, and his friends thought that if he intended 
to make his living with his pen it was time that he settled down to 
work in real earnest. His reputation as the author of Knicker- 
bocker made him a welcome guest in literary circles. He was cor- 
dially received in Edinburgh, and spent a few days with Scott in 
his home at Abbotsford, and felt the charm of his family circle. 
He became acquainted with Kean, Moore, Campbell, Rogers, 
Disraeli, Jeffrey, and Murray. Yet, in the midst of his social 
engagements, he found time for quiet rovings through Warwick- 
shire and other parts of England, gathering material for The 
Sketch-Book. 

The Sketch-Book 

Finally, Irving settled down quietly to literary work, and soon 
began to send manuscript to a New York publisher. In June, 
1819, the first number of The Sketch-Book was pubhshed in New 



148 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

York and Philadelphia. The book took the form of a collection 
of detached sketches. The first number appeared in May, 1819, 
under the nom-de-plume of Geoffrey Crayon, and contained 
"The Author's Account of Himself," ''The Voyage," "Roscoe," 
*' The Wife," and "Rip Van Winkle." The second number con, 
tained four sketches: "English Writers on America," "Rural 
Life in England," "The Broken Heart," and "The Art of Book- 
making." The third number contained the following: "A 
Royal Poet," "The Country Church," "The Widow and Her 
Son," and "The Boar's Head Tavern." The fourth number 
contained "The Mutability of Literature," "The Spectre Bride- 
groom," and "Rural Funerals." The fifth number consisted of 
the charming "Christmas Essays." The sixth contained "The 
Pride of the Village," "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," and "John 
Bull." The seventh and last number contained "Westminster 
Abbey," "Stratford-on-Avon," "Little Britain," and "The 
Angler." In the collected edition the followmg sketches were 
added, "Traits of Indian Character" and "Philip of Pokanoket." 

The book was hailed with extravagant praise. Irving became 
the literary lion of the day, Byron pronounced The Broken 
Heart "one of the finest things ever written on earth." 

"T/ie Sketch-Book contains some of Irvings most dainty work. 
Four, at least, of the sketches will endure as long as does the 
language. ' Rip Van Winkle ' and ' The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ' 
have made the Highlands Of the Hudson classic ground, and have 
added two distinct characters to the literature of the world. 
The paper on Stratford-on-Avon has thrown a new spell over the 
birthplace of Shakespeare, and no one now visits this memory- 
haunted spot without Irving's work in his satchel. For grace 
and pensive beauty the 'Westminster Abbey' and 'The Angler' 
are worthy to be compared with the best of Addison and Gold- 
smith." 

Bracebridge Hall 

was published in 1822. In Bracebridge Hall he draws ideal pic- 
tures of English country life; of the old-fashioned manor house 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 149 

and its inmates; of the beauty, cheer, and joy of the Yuletide; of 
St. Mark's eve and May-day; of the old landmarks of the old 
school. It is the English sketch-book. Then followed The 
Tales of a Traveler, which was published in 1824. 

The Period of Spanish Subjects 
In 1826 Irving was invited by Alexander H. Everett to come to 
Spain to undertake the translation of Navarrete's Voyages of 
Columbus. Irving soon gave up the idea, and planned to write 
an independent book on the life of the great discoverer. He found 
such a rich store of material in Spain that he remained there for 
three years. The results of his labor were his Life of Columbus, 
The Conquest of Granada, The Companions of Columbus, and, 
that most charming sketch-book. The Alhambra. Irving's various 
works of this period should be read in the following order: 
Mahomet and His Successors (1850), Legends of the Conquest of 
Spain (1835), Moorish Chronicles (1833), The Conquest of 
Granada (1829), The Alhambra (1832), The Life and Voyages of 
Columbus (1828), Spanish Voyages of Discovery (1831). 

The Period of American Subjects 
In 1832, after an absence of seventeen years, he returned to his 
native land. The town he had left had grown in seventeen years 
almost beyond recognition. "His countrymen's appreciation of 
him had grown in equal measure." To acquaint himself with the 
development of his country during his absence he made a tour 
into the South and the far West. This tour was productive of 
the following works: A Tour of the Prairies, Astoria, and The Ad- 
ventures of Captain Bonneville. 

SUNNYSIDE 

On his return from the West he purchased a Dutch stone cot- 
tage on the banks of the Hudson, below Tarry town, once the home 
of the Van Tassels, and near the Sleepy Hollow Region he had im- 
mortalized. An architect extended the cottage, until under its 



150 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

name of " Sunnyside " it bore the look of an English country-house. 
It acquired a tower and a whimsical weather-vane brought from 
the Stadt-house of New Amsterdam. The house is mantled with 
ivy from a slip brought over from Scott's "sweet Melrose," 
by Mrs. Jane Renwick, famous in literature as "The Blue-eyed 
Lassie" of Burns. Here Irving was visited by Napoleon III 
and Daniel Webster. As Thackeray has said, "the gate of his 
charming little domain on the beautiful Hudson River was for- 
ever swinging before visitors who came to him. He shut no one 
out." 

Once more he left his beloved country for four years to become 
Minister to Spain. With the exception of that absence he spent 
the last twenty-seven years of his life at Sunnyside. 

The Period of Biographical Subjects 

Upon his return from Spain in 1846 he settled down at Sunny- 
side and published three biographies: The Mahomet, previously 
mentioned, The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, and The Life of Wash- 
ington. 

His Death 

■ Irving died at Sunnyside, November 28, 1859, and was buried 
on a beautiful Indian-summer day in the Sleepy Hollow cemetery 
which he had made immortal. In the language of Longfellow, 
"In the Churchyard at Tarrytown," 

"Here lies the gentle humorist, who died 
In the bright Indian summer of his fame! 
A simple stone, with but a date and name 
Marks his secluded resting-place beside 
The river that he loved and glorified." 

CHRONOLOGY OF IR VINO'S WORKS 

1807. Washington Irving, his brother William, and James K. 
Paulding issued a semimonthly magazine entitled Salmagundi. 
It was an imitation of The Spectator. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 151 

1809. History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. A 
humorous treatment of the traditions and customs belonging to 
the period of Dutch domination. 

1819. The Sketch-Book, by Geoffrey Crayon. Written in 
England and published serially in America. Its immortal crea- 
tions are "Rip Van Winkle" and "Ichabod Crane." 

1822. Bracebridge Hall, the English sketch-book. The char- 
acters in the Christmas sketches reappear in this book. The 
original, Ashton Hall, is in the vicinity of Birmingham. Some of 
its stories, like "The Stout Gentleman," "Annette Delarbe," 
and "Dolph Heyleger," are models of brilliant and effective 
narrative. 

1824. The Tales of a Traveler. This book was far below its 
predecessors in interest and literary merit, and was severely 
criticized on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Period of Spanish Subjects 

1828. The Life and Voyages of Columbus. It is recognized as 
the standard English biography of Columbus. It at once gave 
Irving an honorable place among historians. A sequel to The 
Life of Columbus. 

1829. The Conquest of Granada. The most interesting, per- 
haps, of his Spanish works. Although real history, it reads like 
fiction. 

1831. Companions of Columbus. 

1832. The Alhambra. Prescott called it "The beautiful 
Spanish sketch-book." Regarded by many as the best of Irving's 
Spanish works. 

1833. Moorish Chronicles. A record of the campaigns of two 
kings. Count Fernan Gonzalez, of Castile, and Fernando III, of 
Leon. 

1835. Legends of the Conquest of Spain. A collection of tra- 
ditions of Don Roderick and the days that followed his overthrow. 

1850. Mahomet and His Successors. Recounts the rise and 
spread of Mohammedanism up to the eve of the Arab invasion 
of Spain. 



152 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

Period of Western American Subjects 

1835. A Tour of the Prairies. Record of a month's expedition 
from Fort Gibson up the Arkansas to near the present boundary 
of Kansas. A faithful picture of the West of that day. 

1836. Astoria. A history of the fur-trading settlement at tKe 
mouth of the Columbia River, written at the request of John 
Jacob Astor. 

1837. The Adventures of Captain Bonneville. It describes 
in a vivid way the wild, daring, reckless life of the hunter, trapper, 
and explorer. 

Period of Biographical Works 

1849. The Life of Oliver Goldsmith. "One of the best biog- 
raphies in the whole range of English literature." 

1850. Mahomet and His Successors. Not a success. 
1855-59. The Life of Washington. The outcome of thirty 

years of thought. It was published in five volumes. Recog- 
nized as the standard life of a remarkable man and the crowning 
work of a brilliant literary career. 



CRITICAL ESTIMATES 

''Washington Irving! Why, gentleman, I don't go upstairs to 
bed two nights out of the seven without taking Washington Irving 
under my arm." — Charles Dickens. 

"If he wishes to study a style which possesses the characteristic 
beauties of Addison's, it's ease, simplicity, and elegance, with 
greater accuracy, point and spirit, let him give his days and 
nights to the volumes of Irving." — Edward Everett's "Advice 
to a Student." 

"Every reader of Washington Irving knows the story of Rip 
Van Winkle's adventures of the Kaatskill Mountains — that 
delightful, romantic idyl, in which character, hum6r, and fancy 
are so dehcately blended." — William Winter. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 153 

"The best example of his powers is found in The Sketch-Book 
— mild, cheerful, fanciful, thoughtful, humorous. 'Rip Van 
Winkle' and 'Sleepy Hollow' are among the finest pieces of 
fiction to be found in any literature. As we read we are drawn to 
beauty, gentleness, sunshine, elevating seriousness, or chasten- 
ing sorrow." — Alfred H. Welsh. 

"His stories of 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'Sleepy Hollow' are 
among the finest pieces of original fictitious writing that this 
century has produced." — Robert Chambers. 

"The style of the sketches is everywhere his own — pure, chaste, 
easy, flowing; often elegant and always appropriate to the theme 
in hand; rich, yet not extravagant with varied and pertinent 
imagery — pleasant flowers of speech intermingling themselves 
with his graceful and facile style." — Charles Adams. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Biographies by Pierre Irving, Charles Dudley Warner, R. H. 
Stoddard, and David J. Hill. 

H. R. Haweis' American Humorists. 

H. T. Griswold's Home Life of Great Authors. 

Irvingiana; a Memorial of Washington Irving. 

Chambers' Cyclopaedia of English Literature. 

Duyckinck's Cyclopoedia of American Literature. 

Richardson's American Literature, Vol. I, Chap. vii. 

Stedman-Hutchinson's Library of American Literature, Vol. V. 

R. W. Griswold's Prose Writers of America. 

Allibone's Dictionary of Authors. 

Lippincott's Biographical Dictionary. 

Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography. 

Chappel's Portrait Gallery of Eminent Americans, Vol. II. 

Text-Books on American Literature, by Beers, Morgan, Under- 
wood, Pattee, Tuckerman, Cleveland. 

Report of the Commemoration of Irving's Hundredth Birthday 
Anniversary, by the Washington Irving Association, Tarrytown, 
New York. 



154 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

Bryant's "Address on Irving," before the New York Historical 
Society. 

Longfellow's " Address on Irving," before the Massachusetts 
Historical Society. 

The Atlantic Monthly, November, 1860, June, 1864. (Article 
by Donald G. Mitchell.) 

The Century Magazine, May, 1887. ("Irving at Home," by 
Clarence Cook.) 

Harper's Magazine, March, 1860. (Article by Thackeray.) 
February, 1862; April, 1876; April, 1883; September, 1883. 

The Critic, Irving Number, March 31, 1883. 



MAY 17 1912 







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